<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Magic in the Blood by sapphirebluerubyredroses</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22645357">Magic in the Blood</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphirebluerubyredroses/pseuds/sapphirebluerubyredroses'>sapphirebluerubyredroses</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, M/M, everything is the same but there's magic, looks at the past, post The King's Men, the Kits cause a lot of problems when they show us, witch!AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:46:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>24,174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22645357</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphirebluerubyredroses/pseuds/sapphirebluerubyredroses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You used magic on me,” Neil said, mildly accusing. He opened his eyes, staring into the glowing honey gold of Andrew's eyes.</p><p>“Don't I always?”</p><p>Instead of answering, Neil asked, “Yes or no?” because his hands were aching to run along Andrew's skin, up his toned thighs, to tug him down over him.<br/>.....</p><p>Or where everything is the same, but magic exists. The school year is over, there's no more practices until mid-summer and for the first time, Neil can spend his time the way he wants. Without suppressants muddling his system and Andrew sober, they've got magical and logistical issues to work through.</p><p>And then there's the new Foxes when they show which is a whole other magical nightmare of itself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>141</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Summer Begins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Short chapter to test out the waters. This is my first fic in a long time, so it might take me a chapter or two to get back into the flow. I hope this start is interesting enough to catch someone's attention.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neil:</p><p>Neil stood in the middle of his dorm room staring at his dresser drawers as they systematically removed themselves and emptied onto the floor. He still didn't have many belongings, but there was a strange sort of surprise when the pile only continued to grow. His duffle was too small, and he wasn't entirely sure the backpack he'd borrowed would fit the rest. His belongings hadn't made a dent in the rest of the room's clutter, but that didn't seemed to matter.</p><p>He'd made it to nineteen-years-old. He'd made it to the end of his first year of college, mostly whole and in one piece. He was headed towards a summer of spending time with Andrew and on the court and doing absolutely whatever else he felt like.</p><p>Overall, he'd survived Riko and his father and everything that had happened over the long year.</p><p>Just the thought of another year at Palmetto made him nauseous with a toxic mix of anxiety and excitement.</p><p>The longer he thought and the more his emotions spiraled, the more uncooperative his magic became. Without the support of his suppressants, his magic began spilling from him in ever growing waves. The drawers stuttered and started, dropping from midair to crash to the floor before picking themselves up again. The air in the room grew stuffy with forming thunderheads.</p><p>Before with his suppressants, he'd been decent at controlling the overwhelming amount of magic that poured from him when his emotions got out of control, but without them, he simply didn't know how to handle himself. The urge to rifle through his belongings looking for those little lavender pills almost took hold of him, but logic found its way to his mind.</p><p>He didn't have anymore. Andrew had made him flush them when he'd asked Andrew to stop taking Cracker Dust.</p><p>Black clouds swirled over his head, thunder rolling quietly through the room, when Andrew's magic washed through him.</p><p>That wasn't exactly right. There was only the sense of Andrew's magic, but his magic was so strong that Neil felt it through his entire body. Just another thing that was stronger off his suppressants, but this wasn't wholly unpleasent.</p><p>Neil glanced up from his clothes where they were hopelessly tangling themselves as they tried to fold into neat squares.</p><p>Andrew leaned against the doorway and blinked slowly at him. “What's this?” he asked, waving a hand to indicate the clothes on the floor and the black haze thickening above him. “If you make it rain in here again, Kevin will kill you.”</p><p>Neil scoffed, dropping his eyes back to the writhing pile. “I'd like to see him try. He doesn't have the balls.” Andrew didn't reply. Neil knew he was waiting for a real answer, but he wasn't sure how to explain himself. Not for the first time, he wished Andrew was a telepath and not a healer so he'd never have to explain himself.</p><p>He immediately threw that thought from his mind, a flash of light blooming in the room. He felt Andrew's eyes bore into him more readily, like he'd actually seen the thought pop from his temple. With the way his magic was behaving, that very will might have been the case.</p><p>“Yes or no?” Andrew asked, stepping up to Neil's elbow when he remained silent.</p><p>“Yes, always.” Neil turned hungrily into the kiss, shoving his hands into his back pockets while Andrew wrapped his fingers around the back of his neck and dragged him down.</p><p>Andrew's lips on his were hot, his tongue feverish when it slipped between Neil's lips. He guided Neil to the edge of a bed, pushing him down to sit so he could lean over him, inhaling him. The longer they kissed, his lips growing slick with the taste of honey and mint and his body growing hot beneath Andrew's hands, he felt the drain of the excess magic. The air between them continued to vibrate as it always did, but the air in the room calmed.</p><p>He could feel the suck of Andrew taking everything negative.</p><p>“That's cheating,” Neil whispered against Andrew's lips, not opening his eyes quite yet. “You put your chapstick on on purpose.”</p><p>Honey and mint were Andrew's go-to ingredients for any healing spells or objects that he didn't need anything specific for. He made everything he could with them from chapstick to shampoo to cookies, so much so that Neil had started to associate the scents and tastes with Andrew as much as he did cigarette smoke and whiskey.</p><p>That was one of the major differences between Andrew and Mary that was ever so slowly helping Neil let go of her memory.</p><p>“Purposeful precaution.”</p><p>“You used magic on me,” Neil said, mildly accusing. He opened his eyes, staring into the glowing honey gold of Andrew's eyes.</p><p>“Don't I always?”</p><p>Instead of answering, Neil asked, “Yes or no?” because his hands were aching to run along Andrew's skin, up his toned thighs, to tug him down over him. That, and his hands were falling asleep in his pocket prisons, but that was far less motivating.</p><p>Andrew stared at him. After a heartbeat, he said, “Yes.”</p><p>Neil grinned as he pulled his hands from his pockets, and coaxed Andrew down.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>Neil's magic was electricity in his starving veins, a much needed shock to his system.</p><p>Off his drugs, even months later, Andrew's magic and mind were still learning to coexist with each other, off center at all times. His emotions were duller and twenty times more vibrant at the same time only serving to worsen the effects, but where Neil's magic usually caused problems for other people's magic, it centered Andrew.</p><p>Neil's magic snapped his system back into equilibrium.</p><p>That was only one of the many reasons he kept the redhead around. Nevermind his mouth and wit and fierce determination.</p><p>One reason after another came to mind as he ran his hands that he'd coated in lavender and rose oil that morning over Neil's abdomen. He remembered them as he tasted Neil's magic and Neil himself on his tongue. He remembered as their magic intertwined along the rise and fall of Neil's pleasured groans. He remembered as his magic settled in his chest while his body still hummed, and he felt the bruises Neil had sustained during practice that week fade.</p><p>Andrew didn't do sex magic. With Neil though, he never needed a ritual. He didn't need words or candles or stones or blood. All he needed was Neil's body, and their magic working together.</p><p>The protection sachet he's shoved in his pocket burned white hot, charging quickly with the combined energy.</p><p>Biting down on Neil's lip, Andrew's hand slipped between their bodies. Neil panted, and for a moment, Andrew understood why Nicky preferred sex magic.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Millport, Arizona</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Neil and Andrew meeting for the first time one year before in Millport, Arizona.</p><p>Disclaimer: All dialogue, characters and events used from the book for this chapter belong to Nora Sakovic.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neil:</p><p>Neil sat in the bleachers staring up at the sky. The double suppressants he'd taken before the game were beginning to wear off, enough for him with some difficulty to clear the sky of the few wispy clouds still scudding across the sky. The stars were washed out by the stadium lights, but that was neither here nor there. With the bitter taste of loss on his tongue, he didn't want to think of the possibilities the stars harbored. He simply wanted to ingest the energy the moon provided.</p><p>Of course, the moon wasn't in the sky either.</p><p>Neil felt Coach Hernandez before he even opened the door. There was a vibration that people who didn't have magic released. It felt like feathers against his skin. Sometimes it was soothing, other times it set his nerves on edge. Today, it only sent a jagged edge through his body.</p><p>As Coach Hernandez pushed open the stadium door, Neil clutched his cigarette tighter.</p><p>“I didn't see your parents at the game.”</p><p>This conversation was a song and dance Neil knew all too well. They'd been through it multiple times over his time in Millport, and he was tired. He knew Hernandez was just worried about him, about the sleeping on school grounds, about his parents never being around, but that only made it harder for him. So he let himself be pulled through the conversation until Hernandez said something that put him on full alert.</p><p>“There's someone here to see you.”</p><p>Startled, Neil snapped his eyes back to Hernandez. There was no other magic in the stadium that he could feel, no other magic close by anyway. His senses could have been dulled by the suppressants still, but that never lasted for more than an hour or two after the game. If there was anyone powerful close by, he should have been able to feel them.</p><p>That, unfortunately, meant nothing for his safety.</p><p>In the years he'd been on the run, he'd learned that someone didn't need magic to hurt him. Magic wasn't what made people deadly.</p><p>Jumping to his feet, Neil made to run. There was a man standing at the top of the stadium steps, staring down at them. Neil's panic must have been worse than he thought because he couldn't sense either Coach Hernandez or the new man now. He stopped, clutching at the strap of his duffle. “I don't know you.”</p><p>“He's from a university. He came to see you play tonight,” Coach Hernandez tried to explain, but Neil just shook his head.</p><p>“Bullshit,” Neil snapped, eyes still on the man. “No one recruits from Millport. No one knows where it is.” He should know, he'd placed a tracker block in himself after his mother had died. The tracker block should have pulled anyone's eyes who were looking for him away from Millport. They shouldn't have even been able to see the town on a map, but then again, he'd always been miserable at protection spells. No matter how hard his mother tried to beat the magic into him, he could never seem to pick it up. His magic was too geared towards chaos like his father's much to her frustration.</p><p>“There's this thing called a map. You might have heard of it. I might not have any magic, but I do have the internet.”</p><p>Coach Hernandez cut in, explaining, “He's here because I sent him your file. He put out a note saying he was short on his striker line, and I figured it was worth a shot. I didn't tell you because I didn't know if anything would come of it and I didn't want to get your hopes up.”</p><p>“You did what?” He was horrified. Magic began boiling in his stomach, scorching him from the inside out. The suppressants were doing their job of holding his magic in, but that only made him hot and painfully itchy.</p><p>Overhead, black storm clouds crept in.</p><p>“I tried contacting your parents when he asked for a face-to-face tonight,” Coach Hernandez explained, standing but not moving closer to Neil, “but they haven't returned my messages. You said they'd try to make it.”</p><p>Neil didn't turn his eyes from the other Coach, wary and watchful. “They did. They couldn't.” As always, the lie tasted like battery acid on his tongue despite that the lie was familiar. While he was good at lying -at least he thought he was- his magic always deemed to remind him that that was exactly what he was doing.</p><p>The look the man gave him said that he could taste it too, but he didn't comment. He launched straight into his spiel, “Listen, I can't wait for them. It's stupid late in the season for me to be here, I know, but I had some technical difficulties with my last recruit. Coach Hernandez said you still haven't chosen a school for fall. Works out perfectly, doesn't it? I need a striker sub, and you need a team. All you have to do it sign on the dotted line and you're mind for five years.”</p><p>“You can't be serious,” Neil scoffed, but he couldn't taste the lie, and that was the stranger part. He didn't know if there was a way to block a lie detector charm, but he needed it if there was.</p><p>The man shrugged. “Very serious and very out of time.”</p><p>The man tossed down a file that had Neil's name written on the edge in bold black lettering with the word 'MAGICLESS' just under his name. He didn't look at it. That file was a screaming reminder that he'd been found, that he was on someone's radar even if that someone didn't want to hurt him.</p><p>Neil's magic was roiling harshly in his belly, needing to be released as the suppressants came to the end of their rope. The Coaches couldn't be around when they wore off, not only because neither of them knew he had magic, but because his magic was explosive and dangerous right after suppressants. Chaotic magic hated being cooped up the most out of all the magics. If they were around when he went off, they would be hurt or even killed standing this close to him.</p><p>Sweat beaded down his temple. He could have listed to his mother. He should have stayed off the court when she told him he'd never play Exy again, and suddenly the 22 names and massive amounts of magic they'd both used felt like an effort in futility. Exy was the only thing he had at the end of the day, and he didn't want to be exiled from the court, but college and Exy weren't a future he could have. He shouldn't even be thinking about the future.</p><p>“Please go away,” Neil said, the battery acid thick across his tongue only he thought it was actual bile this time.</p><p>“It's a bit sudden, but I really do need an answer tonight. The Committee's been hounding me since Janie got locked up.”</p><p>Neil's stomach dropped out from under him. “Foxes. Palmetto State University.”</p><p>Coach David Wymach stared back at him, not at all surprised, “I guess you've seen the news.”</p><p>Well, he'd certainly done that. Janie smalls, Palmetto striker sub, had been found in a bathtub by her best friend with a note that said she had to let the magic out. And that was terrifying. Neil had never personally seen someone's magic make them go crazy, but he knew it was possible. He knew that sometimes despite being born with magic, their body and magic began to reject each other. He'd heard that it was hereditary, but he'd also heard that it could develop over time. The most cases he'd heard of were about pregnant women. With their body chemistry going through so many changes, sometimes their magic didn't make the adjustments like it should.</p><p>Neil had always thought that was a terrifying prospect while silently hoping that one day his father's magic would do that same.</p><p>Neil couldn't sign with the Foxes. They were in the new every other week for something or other, usually magic related. They were made up of talented rejects, junkies and kids whose magic made them nuts or that they never had control of to begin with. In short, they were a fucking mess.</p><p>Then there was Kevin Day, and there was no way Neil could meet him. He'd recognize him immediately, and even if he didn't recognize his face, if he felt his magic- That's be it. He'd recognize Neil immediately. His and his father's magic were one in the same, so similar they were nearly identical at times.</p><p>“You can't be here.”</p><p>“Yet here I stand. Need a pen?”</p><p>“No,” Neil said, tightening his fingers around his bag strap until his knuckles pressed white against his skin, “No. I'm not playing for you.”</p><p>“I misheard you.”</p><p>“You signed Kevin.”</p><p>“And Kevin signed you, so-”</p><p>That was it for Neil. Kevin knew who he was and where he was, and he needed to be out of there. Praying to Tyche, Neil bolted for the door, but his goddess wasn't with him that night. He felt the magic, roiling and chaotic and forcibly restrained, a moment before he saw the man. He hesitated for barely a moment, and that was where he fucked up. A racquet slammed into his stomach. Crumpling to the floor, he wheezed as his magic crawled up his throat, choking him.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>“Wymack's been out there for quite a long time,” Andrew said breezily, plucking at the taught strings of a goalie stick he'd taken from the rack in the corner, “It might not be going so well.”</p><p>“We'll get him. He can't say no.”</p><p>Andrew grinned nastily. “That's what you thought of me, yet here we are.”</p><p>Kevin grumbled under his breath, but didn't answer.</p><p>Andrew knew that Kevin'f failure to convince him to sign with the Ravens still stung, and he loved to poke at the sore spot. Sometimes, he managed to elicit a stronger response, and he was mildly disappointed that he wasn't going to get anything more.</p><p>Andrew needed a distraction from the feeling of stale magic in the locker room. Too many suppressants and magic leaking out of the player's pores by the end of the game. He could feel it on his tongue like a film, the taste musty, and he ran his teeth along the top of his tongue to try and scrape the feeling away.</p><p>“We're not leaving until he says yes,” Kevin said vehemently.</p><p>Annoyance skittered across Andrew's nerves. He leaned on the stick, unconvinced and unimpressed. He was just getting ready to throw back a scathing remark when he felt the brush of another person's magic, frantic with fear.</p><p>Standing straight, Andrew held the racquet at the ready.</p><p>The man came barreling through the door, hesitating just long enough that Andrew caught a glimpse of the hesitation before he slammed the racquet into his stomach.</p><p>Neil Josten dropped to the floor immediately, dry heaving. Even through the haze of his drugs, he could see the bright flickers of color spilling from his lips instead of bile.</p><p>Andrew's magic reached out for Neil, wanting to heal the wound he'd inflicted, always wanting to heal. He just let his magic flail at the end of its reach under the influence of his drugs and his own limitations.</p><p>As fleeting as it was, he felt Neil's magic more strongly than he did even Kevin's which was interesting. That could have been due to the suppressants every athlete was required to take before a game, but game suppressants only lasted for the length of a normal game. Whatever was putting a lid on Neil's magic, they were much stronger than game suppressants, but they weren't strong enough.</p><p>What was most interesting though was the fact that Neil was supposed to be magicless, but that couldn't be further from the truth it seemed.</p><p>Andrew stared down at the heaving body, wanting to rip him to shreds as their magics collided and interlaced in sporadic spurts. That wouldn't have been a problem if his magic had simply rejected the interruption like it did all other magics, but it didn't. Instead, it collected and stored Neil Josten's magic like charging a battery.</p><p>Andrew grinned manically.</p><p>Wymack pushed through the door. “God damn it, Minyard! This is why we can't have nice things!”</p><p>“Oh, Coach, if he was nice, he wouldn't be any use to us, would he?” Andrew asked.</p><p>“He's no use to us if you break him.”</p><p>They went back and forth like that for a moment before he met Neil's eyes. The glared he leveled on Andrew wouldn't have been anything special if he didn't see the lightning streak across his irises. No, not across them... behind them... He was wearing colored contacts.</p><p>Andrew narrowed his eyes. '<em>Oh, this one might be interesting after all.</em>'</p><p>“Better luck next time,” Andrew told him, but he didn't miss the smallest of flinches.</p><p>“Fuck you.”</p><p>…..</p><p>Neil:</p><p>“What are you thinking about?” Andrew asked, startling Neil out of his road hypnosis.</p><p>Neil blinked quickly, checking all the mirrors before glancing over at Andrew. “The first time we met.” He hadn't known Andrew was awake or how long he'd been watching him, but he was still curled up against the window, the sun shining gold in his hair. He was soft and sleepy and beautiful.</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>Neil shrugged. “I don't know.” He was quiet for a moment. “What were you dreaming about?”</p><p>Andrew straightened, glancing around to gauge where they were. “How could you tell I was dreaming?”</p><p>“You twitch and mumbled in your sleep sometimes.”</p><p>Andrew was silent for a moment. “The first time we met.”</p><p>The silence returned, thicker but still comfortable. They were always surprised when their magic did that, pulled their thoughts in the same direction. It was almost like telepathy, but without the direct communication. Both of them could live with indirect communication, but they knew they'd go nuts with telepathy. They couldn't be that entranced in each others minds all the time.</p><p>Neil smiled. “What did you think of me?”</p><p>“That you'd be interesting, but not worth the trouble.”</p><p>“I just thought you were an asshole,” Neil said with a laugh.</p><p>“I still am,” Andrew said matter-of-factly.</p><p>Neil laughed again, and took the next off ramp down towards a truck stop.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Taconic State Park, New York Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Neil and Andrew get their summer break started, and someone tries to use a tracking spell on Neil.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neil:</p><p>“Where are we going?” Andrew asked, reaching for the radio and adjusting the volume so Neil wouldn't have to shout over the music.</p><p>Neil and Andrew hadn't made any plans before they'd left Fox Tower that afternoon, leaving Kevin, Nicky and Aaron to their empty rooms waiting to be picked up by Abby. The Upperclassmen had been smart enough to book it out of the dorms as soon as they had the chance, and they'd followed their leads. They left without saying anything to the others, simply throwing their belongings into the Maserati and leaving. They didn't need to be back for another two weeks when Aaron's trial started, and Andrew's protection was no longer needed with Riko dead.</p><p>Even now, hours later, Neil's phone was still vibrating insistently with Nicky's texts. <em>'Where did you guys go?' 'Where are you going?' 'You can't ignore me forever'. 'Whatever. Have fun, nerds &lt;3'. 'Don't do anything I wouldn't do :P'.</em></p><p>Reaching into the door side pocket, he finally turned off his phone. He'd talk to Nicky later. Maybe.</p><p>“We're going camping,” Neil said simply, rummaging through the glove compartment for the map of the East Coast and brochure he'd picked up. He'd made the decision when they'd stopped just after the house in Columbia, talking to the woman at the register and then Matt about places in New York. He turned the brochure towards Andrew.</p><p>Andrew glanced at the picture and quickly away, changing lanes before looking back. “Where is that and why there?”</p><p>“New York. Matt's mom wanted to meet us, so this is going to be two birds with one stone.” He shoved the map and brochure back in the glove compartment. “Don't make that face. Matt all but begged me. This will be a road trip. The place is called Taconic State Park. It looks cool, and there's not going to be a lot of people there so we'll be able to let our magic do what it needs to. Also, it says there's a waterfall. Matt pretty much made it a requirement for us to go.”</p><p>“And when did you start listening to what Matt says?” Andrew asked, schooling his face from the mild look of disgust back to his usual blankness. “You don't know how to lay low, do you? This is exactly how you got caught last time.”</p><p>“I got caught because some murderous psychopath outed me,” Neil corrected, rolling his eyes.</p><p>Andrew cut him a sidelong look. “No, you got caught because you decided to mouth off to a murderous psychopath and make him look incompetent multiple times who then decided to out you.”</p><p>“I would never,” he said, mock seriously.</p><p>“I have video evidence.”</p><p>“Lies.”</p><p>Banter with Andrew was easy, the easiest part about being with Andrew if he were to be honest. Unlike when they were intimate and they're magics intertwined as if fighting, they tangled and settled between them in a comfortable jumble instead. When they bantered, they didn't need to worry about how their magic was interacting, if their magical union would become toxic or burn out in their emotions or knock out a cell tower.</p><p>“I wouldn't lie to you.” There was a lilt of mirth to Andrew's voice, but underneath, there was also the tang of seriousness.</p><p>Sobering, Neil smiled over at him and held out his hand. “I know that.”</p><p>Glancing over, Andrew took Neil's hand without comment, threading their fingers together as lightning sparked between their palms.</p><p>Neil was unreasonably happy as he tried to school his expression. “We're going to have to stop for water and food.”</p><p>“Oh, so you weren't planning on hunting and scavenging for food? What's the point of camping then? Do you have any of this planned out at all?”</p><p>“Some of it that I've figured out since the gas station.” Neil shrugged. “Mostly, I'm hoping for us to get lost and dies out in the woods. It'd make what's left of my father's syndicate happy.”</p><p>“They'll have to try harder than that if they think I'll let you die by accident.”</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>Before knowing where they were going anywhere in particular, the first stop the pair had made had been at the house in Columbia. Perhaps due to some feral instinct, Neil had spent the time collecting blankets and other useful items for life on the run, shoving them into the trunk without much thought.</p><p>Andrew left him to his hording, disappearing into the how to collect the few pre-made sachets he had and jars of honey and animal blood he had in his closet. He'd shoved them into a small bag he had, packing sweaters and shirts around the fragile glass. They'd met back down at the car, climbing in without discussion.</p><p>They stopped again nearly eight hours later at a twenty-four hour all sale store and bought a small tent, sleeping bags, chairs and enough non-perishables and water to last them several days. When they climbed back into the car, Neil behind the wheel, it was nearly midnight.</p><p>They'd been up for more than eighteen hours, and they sat in exhausted silence for several long moments. The want to finally get to where they were going and the need for sleep hung unspoken between them.</p><p>“I'm tired,” Neil finally admitted, “And even if we get there, I don't think the registration office will be open.”</p><p>Andrew hummed, but didn't say anything, his eyes itchy with fatigue. While the silent need to finish the drive sat heavy in his chest, he also knew there was no need to continue on. They were on summer break. There was no reason to rush anywhere.</p><p>Of course, there were spells they could cast to combat exhaustion and caffeine just a drive-thru away, but neither of them had the energy or ingredients for a spell, and caffeine did strange things to their magic when they were so tired. Caffeine made their magic unreliable and uncooperative, made it more like to explode at inopportune times.</p><p>“Hotel,” Andrew decided.</p><p>“Thank god,” Neil whispered.</p><p>They found a cheap motel ten minutes up the road, and fell into the queen sized bed as soon as the door was locked and bolted behind them. Neil toed off his shoes while face down in a pillow, groaning all the while, before curling into the smallest ball possible against Andrew's back. He pressed his forehead to the space between Andrew's shoulder blades and fell asleep. Within a moment, his breath had evened out and his magic filtered through the air.</p><p>Andrew lay there for longer, listening to Neil's breathing. Rain began to patter softly against the roof. His magic reacted to Neil's sleep accordingly, snaking out gently from his body to wrap protectively around Neil and cocooning them in a bubble of protection. The sachet in his pocket warmed, adding strength to the walls he so easily built.</p><p>He slipped into sleep with the warmth of his own magic and the sounds of Neil and his rain surrounding him.</p><p>…..</p><p>Andrew woke in the early morning to Neil rolling away from him and pushing into the bathroom. He turned onto his back to stare at the ceiling and listen to Neil puke his guts out. The shower roared to life before Andrew followed him into the bathroom.</p><p>“You can come in,” Neil said as the door opened, “I didn't mean to wake you up.”</p><p>Closing and locking the door behind him, Andrew pulled off his clothes one piece at a time. He hesitated with his briefs before slipping them off. Normally, he wouldn't get naked even with Neil, but it was early in the morning and he could feel the lag in Neil's magic. He was craving skin to skin contact, and he had to wonder if Nicky was behind that. It wouldn't be the first time he'd cast on Andrew, on accident and just to see if it would work if he did, but it would be the first time Andrew hadn't felt the spell hit.</p><p>“Magic in the area?” he asked even though he knew that wasn't the answer, stepping under the spray where Neil stood with his head bowed.</p><p>Neil's breath came quickly, and he swallowed harshly. His voice was thick as if he were trying not to vomit again as he said, “Someone tried to cast on me. Tasted like tracking. God, I feel nauseous.”</p><p>Andrew's protection magic had at least done its job, but he thought they'd managed this part of someone casting on Neil. His spells must have been fading. “Yes or no?” he asked, sliding his fingers together to prep his magic.</p><p>“I don't want you to take this. It feels... wrong. Different than usual.”</p><p>Andrew stood a hair's breadth away, waiting as Neil leaned forward with a hand on the wall and wretched. “They're probably using someone stronger or a different spell.”</p><p>Bile splattered against the tub floor. Neil nearly whined as he said, “They're trying again. Where did they get so much of my hair?”</p><p>“Probably Fox Tower. Or the court. They might be using your blood.”</p><p>He heaved again. “Fuck 'em.”</p><p>“Neil-”</p><p>“Yes. It's a yes.”</p><p>Andrew pressed his parted lips to the back of Neil's bowed neck, licking at the knob at the top of his spin and biting down. Acrid smoke filled his mouth as he inhaled Neil's tainted magic, and exhaled clean magic back into him. Without the help of his conduits and herbs, the process took longer than normal, hurt more, tasted worse. While he worked, he drew invisible sigils across Neil's back, pressing them into his skin with just the warmth of his palm before moving on.</p><p>When he finally pulled back, a bruise was forming on the back of Neil's neck in the arc of his teeth and the vaguest impressions of his sigils lightened Neil's skin. “This is temporary. I need to refresh your spells.” His mouth tasted like ash, and he spit at the floor several times.</p><p>Neil turned to face him, looking tired and rung out. His magic barely flickered in the air around him, grey and dull. “I can take care of myself. You don't-”</p><p>“I'm going to anyway,” Andrew cut in before he could finish his sentence. The last time he'd fully revoked his protective spells on Neil, he'd gotten kidnapped almost immediately by his father's people and come back looking like someone had used him as an ashtray. He wasn't about to let that happen again.</p><p>“I'd kiss you if I hadn't just puked.”</p><p>“Brush your teeth while I get my bag, and we'll talk about it.” Andrew shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist and heading to get his bag.</p><p>Neil followed more slowly after him, towels wrapped tightly around his waist and shoulders, to rummage through his bag. He stood at the sink, scrubbing roughly at his teeth and tongue.</p><p>Andrew watched him closely from the bathroom as he sat on the edge of the bath and set out his supplies. He pulled out the small mortar and pestle that Nicky had jokingly gifted him after learning who his deities were, but he used it more than he liked to admit. He used it quite often actually.</p><p>Small, but heavy, the set was carved from black stone intermixed with glaringly white fossils. The inside was stained rust brown from constant use, and he only considered it for a moment before tapping in dried mint, rosemary, sunflower and salt. Over the herbs, he poured a small splatter of the blood that had been enchanted to remain fresh before grinding it all together into a fine paste.</p><p>He'd been told over and over throughout the years that he practiced his magic wrong, but the first thing he'd learned once Higgins had found him was that his magic was highly subject to his own thoughts and whims. For him, it helped to include as object that was close to him and something that reminded him of the subject of his magic.</p><p>When Higgins still mattered -because he had at one point no matter how Andrew felt about him now- he'd taught Andrew that magic was personal, that there was no right or wrong way to do it. Where Exy was structure and rigid, witchcraft was loose and up for interpretation. Due to his lack of control though, Higgins had suggest a deity to follow, Apollo to be exact.</p><p>Andrew had scoffed. What use would he have had for a god that wasn't there to help anyway? What use did he have for magic that didn't work anyway? The only person he could rely on was himself, and he wasn't going to put his time and energy towards an absent god.</p><p>Only once he was in Juvie and had met Aaron with all his bruises and down turned eyes that he considered the possibility. Deities, whether that be God from a magicless religion or a God(dess) from a pagan religion, were supposed to focus the worshiper's magic and make it easier to manipulate into the needed shape. A deity wasn't a requirement for practicing, but Andrew had needed to focus if he was going to help his brother.</p><p>Andrew studied under Apollo for months before realizing he was in dire need of feminine energy in his craft.</p><p>Sekhmet found him sitting on the curb outside a convenience store in the form of a black cat with piecing golden eyes and an emerald collar. The cat had rubbed her head along his arm and back before taking a seat next to him. She's dropped a piece of paper in his lap, looking please. The paper had been from a textbook, an image of Sekhmet staring up at him.</p><p><em>Mistress of Dread</em>.</p><p><em>Lady of Slaughter</em>.</p><p>He'd looked over at the cat, scratching behind her ear. “Thanks.”</p><p>With a blink, she'd gotten up and disappeared over the hood of a car.</p><p>“Andrew?”</p><p>Blinking back to himself, Andrew scooted over and said, “Sit. Back to me.”</p><p>Neil sat as he was instructed, dropping the top towel and shivering as the cool air pressed against his skin. Overhead, there was the weak patter of rain beginning again, softer than earlier that night.</p><p>“Sit still,” Andrew warned before dipping his fingers into the blood mixture. He retraced the sigils he'd already written. Track blocker. Hex dispeller. Barrier. The blood glowed gently after her pressed each sigil into Neil's skin.</p><p>Neil trembled. “You're warm.”</p><p>“Good. Turn. Now the front.” Andrew placed a general protection sigil in each of Neil's four corners to ask the elements for their protection, and over his heart, he drew his oldest sigil. The first sigil he'd written that worked.</p><p>When he pressed his hand over the blood, electricity jumped between their skin. Neil gasped quietly. “What was that one?”</p><p>“Just something extra.” He was still mildly skeptical about the gods, but he'd silently talked to Apollo and Sekhmet while he'd been drawing. The burst of energy between their bodies told Andrew that someone had heard.</p><p>Andrew ran his fingers down the bridge of Neil's nose, smirking as he scrunched it up. When he prompted Neil, he dipped his clean fingers in the blood mixture to do the same to Andrew.</p><p>Standing, Andrew said simply, “Shower.”</p><p>Neil climbed into the shower, and Andrew followed behind him, leaving his tools to clean up later. He dragged Neil into a kiss as the water burst back to life.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Neil:</p><p>The shower lasted longer than either of them probably meant it to, turning from washing the blood from their skin to moans and gasps, hands in hair and lips on necks. The water ran cold before they clambered back out, Neil feeling like himself again and Andrew's magic jumping from his skin in energetic spurts compared to the person. It was nearly eight when they check out of their room.</p><p>“Off to the campsite then?” Neil asked, sliding into the driver's seat and turning over the engine in one easy motion. He grabbed the map from the glove compartment as Andrew smoked outside the car door, but instead of opening it, he licked his thumb and pressed it to the front where his fingerprint remained and glowed. “At least we won't get lost now.”</p><p>“You'll find a way,” Andrew hummed, stubbing out his cigarette and sliding into the passenger seat. “Do you still feel the spell?”</p><p>Neil shook his head, twisting around in his seat to back out of the spot. “No. All I can feel is this sigil.” Turning forward, he pressed his fingers over his heart.</p><p>He didn't see Andrew look over at him, but he smiled when he growled, “Stop making that face.”</p><p>“I'm not making a face.”</p><p>“You are, and I hate it.”</p><p>Neil pursed his lips. “You know, every time you say you hate something about me, it makes me think that you actually like it.”</p><p>“Bold faced lie.”</p><p>“You said you wouldn't lie to me.”</p><p>Andrew shrugged. “I wasn't the one who said it.”</p><p>Neil hummed along with the frequency of his own magic. “Do you want coffee before we leave town?”</p><p>“I want a chocolate croissant and java chip frappuccino,” Andrew said.</p><p>“You had those yesterday.”</p><p>“And?”</p><p>Neil started laughing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Taconic State Park, New York Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Nature and kisses and s'mores.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have no idea why this chapter is so massive, but it's why I'm a little late posting. Enjoy though.</p><p>P.S. I thrive on comments. I don't want to sound like I'm begging, but... that's exactly what I'm doing. Let me know what you think is working, if anyone is completely OOC, if you're just fabulously bored with their vacation and just want to get on with when the Kits (new Foxes) come in. Anything and everything is appreciated. I don't want to bore y'all so early on.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neil:</p><p>They switched after two hours, Neil posting up happily in the passenger seat. He liked driving well enough, driving just to drive, driving without a purpose, mind on the road, but no one really tell you what driving for hours is really like. How absolutely boring it can get.</p><p>“<em>Pull over.” His mother's voice was just a breath, barely even a whisper, but her words were as sharp as ever.</em></p><p>Their drive to them up along the coast, and Neil found himself dragged through memories he would have rather forgotten. Memories that didn't mean what they used to anymore.</p><p>
  <em>Neil followed his mother's order, stopping as far off the main road as he could without the car getting stuck. Darkness pressing in at the windows, their headlights the only ilumination.</em>
</p><p>He hadn't though the sight of the ocean, that blue endless expansive void, would have invoked his mother's memory, her voice, her magic. He should have known better. He did know better. Still, he hadn't adjusted their course.</p><p>
  <em>Neil was exhausted. They'd been driving for days, down along the coast away from Washington, as far west as they could get without driving into the ocean. If they had gone east, they only would have run into more of his father's people. They would have run into the arms of certain death.</em>
</p><p>Pressing his forehead to the cool glass of the window, Neil clamped his eyes shut. He tried to will away her memory, but that only seemed to pull her forward more quickly.</p><p>
  <em>They were just off the beach, gravel turning into fine sand just a few yards up.</em>
</p><p>Her memory was greedy for his pain. Hungry for his end. The end he'd escaped.</p><p>
  <em>In the light of the headlights, he watched the waves roll in and over each other, casting up the natural magic that always seemed to place a soothing cloth over his suppressant restrained system.</em>
</p><p>He breathed shallowly. There was the smell of drying blood, the sting of his mother's fingers twisting in his hair, the taste of ash on his tongue.</p><p>
  <em>Tonight, nothing could be soothing with the smell of blood thick in the sticky heat of the car. Tonight, that natural magic only put him more on edge. Tonight, his suppressants were wearing thin far sooner than they should have, and thunder heads were gathering on the horizon.</em>
</p><p>He felt when Andrew caught wind of his unease, how his magic reacted to Neil's huddling deep in his body like it always had around his parents. Hide because that was the only way to live.</p><p>
  <em>His fingertips were gritty with gunpowder and dried blood, pulling at his skin in that sickening way dried blood always did before it started flaking away.</em>
</p><p>Run because that was the only way to survive.</p><p>
  <em>They knew she was dying. They'd known for miles, but they were as far as they could get. From his father. On her life.</em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <em>He put the car in park, but he was unwilling to look at her grime streaked face. There'd be pain, determination, anger, desperation. He didn't want to see any of it. He couldn't. What was he going to do without her?</em>
</p><p>“<em>Mom?”</em></p><p>Andrew's hand hovered close, his magic slipping off his skin in comforting waves. Even now, over a year later, after everything that had happened, Neil never really understood how Andrew's magic could be so opposite from the person. That was just it though, wasn't it?</p><p>Andrew's magic was just like him, but no one wanted to see it. Calm and creeping, it tended towards healing and protection. It could be hard and dangerous, but most often, it was the calmest thing in the room. If you needed protection, you went to Andrew. If you needed to be fixed, you went to Andrew. His methods were unorthodox and offensive, but they worked. They always worked.</p><p>His mother and father and teammates were all the same, and he wondered if that meant their magic was a product of them or if they were a product of their magic.</p><p>“<em>Look at me.” Her magic clawed at him, no longer the rugged calm wave that it had always been. It adopted the thorns that always lurked beneath the surface, digging into his skin because it couldn't reach his magic buried deep in his body. “Look at me!”</em></p><p>
  <em>Her fingers snaked into his hair, twisting tightly until he cried out and looked at her through tear filled eyes.</em>
</p><p>Reaching out blindly, Neil stopped Andrew's fingers before they reached his hair. He pulled them down, pulled them close.</p><p>
  <em>Tears tracked down Mary's face. She'd only ever cried in front of Neil once in his life when she thought the infected stab wound in his side was going to kill him. She'd spent an entire day casting healing spells and protection spells over him until their safe room smelled of burned chamomile and ocean salt. Of her spent magic.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Her expression was stony. “Abram, answer me!”</em>
</p><p>“Promise me.” Neil didn't realize he'd spoken until Andrew's fingers flexed in his, tightening around his, tightening around his own.</p><p>Rain pounded down on the roof of the car, deafening.</p><p>“Promise what?”</p><p>“<em>Promise me you'll stay hidden. Promise me you will never be Nathaniel again. Promise me you will do everything you can to survive. After everything, you cannot let your father find you. Promise me,” she demanded, magic behind her words. He'd never understood until that moment how powerful she really was.</em></p><p>
  <em>The promise magic worked its way through his system. There was a chance that it would be gone as soon as she died, and there was a chance it would just become a part of his survival.</em>
</p><p>“<em>I promise,” he told her, scalp aching and eyes burning. Her magic dug down deeper.</em></p><p>Lightning flashed across his eyes.</p><p>
  <em>Lightning flashed across the ocean as rain began to pour.</em>
</p><p>“<em>Don't make this lightly!” she snapped, jerking on his hair harder, “If you let yourself die, my death will mean nothing too. Protect yourself at all costs. There is nothing and no one more precious than your own life. Do you understand me!”</em></p><p>“<em>Yes.” He knew she was holding into the last dregs of her life as her magic began to wane, thorns detaching from their vines to burrow under his skin.</em></p><p>“<em>What are your names?”</em></p><p>
  <em>Neil repeated all the people he had been up to that point, all the aliases that hadn't lasted, all the other boys that were no longer alive.</em>
</p><p>“Abram, don't let her keep you.”</p><p>“<em>Where are the safe houses?”</em></p><p>
  <em>He listed each from memory, staring into the clouding blue of her eyes.</em>
</p><p>“You're not running anymore.”</p><p>
  <em>Mary's voice was only a croak as she asked, “Who are your contacts?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Neil sobbed through the list, latching onto her wrist.</em>
</p><p>“You have a home. You have people who are here for you.”</p><p>
  <em>Fingers loosening in his hair, she pulled him in to press a kiss to his forehead. “You have to survive.” She let him go, and it wasn't long before he was incoherent. Within the hour, she was dead.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Neil tumbled from the car into the torrential downpour, unable to be near her corpse as he watched the last wisp of mustard yellow magic slipped passed her parted lips.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When he lit the fire, her body burned slower than he thought.</em>
</p><p>“You don't need her anymore.”</p><p>Neil inhaled sharply, the taste of smoke thick on his tongue. He sat up, Andrew's fingers still clutched securely in his own. He was panting.</p><p>“Are you back?”</p><p>He ran a hand through his sweaty hair, throat thick. The ocean was out of sight, and immediately, the rain began to lighten. “Y-yeah. I think so.” He glanced over at Andrew. “Were you talking to me?”</p><p>“Yes. What happened?”</p><p>“The ocean. I haven't seen the ocean since- I hate the ocean.”</p><p>Andrew didn't ask anything else. He didn't need to.</p><p>…..</p><p>“This place looks like we're going to get eaten by bears,” Andrew commented, stepping from the car and slamming the door closed.</p><p>Neil followed suit, rounding the back and starting to pull things from the trunk. He dropped the tent box on the ground. “Not if we're smart.”</p><p>“You're never smart.”</p><p>“Yes, but I am at least a little street smart.”</p><p>Andrew leveled an unimpressed look at him. “Do I need to bring up the murderous psychopath again?”</p><p>Neil huffed. “No.”</p><p>“Stop pouting.”</p><p>Ignoring him, Neil looked up at the treetops. “Look, there's no other people around, and Matt said that the school year hasn't finished up so there's not going to be anyone. Plus, it's the middle of the work week. We'll have the place to ourselves,” he pointed out, spinning in the middle of their site for emphasis.</p><p>Andrew paced the edges of the campsite, digging shallow holes to drop in honey and mint. He pushed the first back into each hole. “I can see three other tents just from where I'm standing.”</p><p>“And those are the only other tents.”</p><p>“That's not alone.”</p><p>Neil rolled his eyes and sighed. “It's as alone as we're going to get.” He turned back towards Andrew, grinning. “Come on, try to have fun? It's summer! This is my first time camping! This is the first time we've gotten to be alone without the team on our heels. We don't have to worry about anyone prying into our business.”</p><p>“Besides the person trying to track you.”</p><p>Waving away the concern, Neil said, “That happens all the time. I'm not going to let that stop me from living.”</p><p>“Because you've been so good at that in the past.”</p><p>“Because I'm trying.”</p><p>“Neil.”</p><p>“Andrew.”</p><p>They stared at each other for several long moments before Andrew gave in with a roll of his eyes. He kicked open the top of the tent box and pulled out the bag holding the poles. “Whatever.”</p><p>Neil grinned again. “Who knows. Maybe you'll like being out here.”</p><p>“Doubt it.” Lip curling, he turned his sneer towards the trees. “There's so much nature.”</p><p>“You sound like Nicky.” Neil laughed when Andrew turned a glare on him. He bent down, wrestling the canvas from the box.</p><p>“Don't compare me to him.”</p><p>They set up the camp and tent surprisingly quick for not even attempting to look at the tent directions. They set out the sleeping bags and mounds of blankets Neil had brought. They left the the food in the trunk, but pulled out the firewood to stack next to the fire pit.</p><p>Neil stood off to the side, hands on his hips to survey their work. “This'll be great.”</p><p>“You won't be saying that when you break an ankle and bleed out on a deserted trail.”</p><p>“That's what you're here for.”</p><p>“I'm not dragging your corpse back. The bears can have you.”</p><p>“I won't be dead yet.”</p><p>“Still not gonna do it.” Andrew shrugged. Glancing around, he pushed his hands into his pockets. “Where's that waterfall you wanted to go to?”</p><p>…..</p><p>Neil let his magic free from his tight strangle hold on it as soon as they were on the path and far away from the rest of the sights. There wasn't a soul in sight, no cabins, no tents, no platforms for tents. There were no children, mothers, fathers or friends. There was the possibility of animals, but they weren't in as much danger as humans.</p><p>Not that Neil or Andrew's magic was dangerous unless they were threatened.</p><p>Colorful rainbow tendrils crawled across the forest floor and spiraled through the air. The trees responded, leaning down towards Neil to brush leaves against his hair. The sun seemed to shine just the tiniest bit brighter, the sky bluer. Water tinkled near by, laughing and burbling. A breeze brushed through their hair.</p><p>Under the right circumstances, his magic wasn't always destructive. People forgot to remember that he controlled the weather, and that didn't stop at storms.</p><p>Andrew's magic was less physical, and Neil loved to watch him when using it. His magic showed in the shine of his skin, the thickness of his hair, the sparkling gold of his eyes. The funniest thing about Andrew's brand of magic was that it tended to attract the animals Neil's magic tended to scare off.</p><p>As they talked, animals peaked out from the underbrush and shouted from the trees.</p><p>“You're a regular Snow White. Or maybe Cinderella,” Neil mused as a bird paused above Andrew to nip at his hair before flitting off and a raccoon trotted beside them.</p><p>Andrew glared down at the raccoon, and it took of into the trees. “They wouldn't be so keen if they knew I used their blood in my spells.”</p><p>“You get your blood from a butcher,” Neil pointed out, “Or your own.”</p><p>“Doesn't change anything.”</p><p>“I think it does.” Neil pushed closer to Andrew, just barely bumping their shoulders together.</p><p>…..</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>The hike took them longer than either of them had anticipated, and they were both sun flushed and sweat drenched by the time they reached the waterfall with its little oasis. They had brought water bottles, but nothing compared to the fine mist floating from the water as they stood at the edge of the pool.</p><p>Water and magic burbled as one, cascading over the smooth rocks at the top of the falls.</p><p>Andrew watched as Neil crouched by the pool, staring into the surface. Neil's magic twisted and twirled with the natural magic of the falls, as if they were playing. Andrew's magic was much more reserved, sticking close to his body and growing prickly at the intrusive natural magic. “What are you doing?” he asked when Neil didn't move.</p><p>“Considering getting in.”</p><p>Lifting his foot, Andrew shoved against Neil's ass and watched as he flailed all the way into the pool. It was deeper than he'd thought, and Neil disappeared beneath the surface. When he surfaced, Andrew was genuinely laughing for the first time in longer than he could remember.</p><p>Neil broke the surface, sputtering, “Asshole!”</p><p>“We've already discussed this,” Andrew said, smirking. He wasn't expecting -though he really should have been- when the wind pressed against his back, sending him off balance.</p><p>In his fumble, Neil reached out and yanked him in, pushing his head beneath the surface. When he popped back up, Andrew couldn't stop staring at the shit-eating grin curling up the corners of his mouth.</p><p>He was soaked and cold, but that smirk on Neil's lips sent a flutter through his chest. He hated the feeling. He hated Neil for making him feel that way. “I hate you.”</p><p>“Probably a good plan,” Neil agreed, still smirking.</p><p>Andrew growled, stepping closer. “Yes or no?”</p><p>“Yes,” Neil said, leaning towards him.</p><p>For what felt like hours, they lay in the water making out and playing around, blissed out on each others company in a way they hadn't been able to so far.</p><p>Neil pulled him beneath the waterfall to sit on a thin slab of rock. They spend another infinite minute wrapped up in the feel of each other, their lips going numb and energetic magic all around them. They break apart when they hear the other campers pause at the pool's edge, but they don't stay long.</p><p>“Nicky's going to be jealous when he hears about this,” Neil whispers, eyes on the others campers.</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>…..</p><p>The sun was beginning to dip low towards the horizon when they finally made it back to the campsite, and they immediately stoked a fire the same as the other three sites. They slipped into the tent and out of their clothing, shivering with the dropping temperature. If it had been warmer, they might have considered continuing what they'd started at the pool, but it wasn't and hunger gnawed at their empty stomachs.</p><p>They pulled out can with pop tops that they nestled in the coals on the edge of the fire to heat up. Neil broke off his tab, staring balefully at Andrew while he laughed at Neil before lending him a knife to pry the top open. They ate in silence, listening to the forest fall asleep around them and the nocturnal animals wake.</p><p>Only one other campsite had more than two people at it, and Neil and Andrew watched as they invited the other two sites to theirs in turn. They turned towards Neil and Andrew.</p><p>Magic flared hot in Andrew's chest as they were stopped by his barrier.</p><p>“Uh, we just wanted to...” They trailed off as magic settled in Andrew's eyes, lighting his irises from the inside out. After several seconds of confused stammering, they returned to their site.</p><p>Andrew stood, stretching as his back popped. “Where did you put the marshmellows?”</p><p>Neil frowned, setting his can on the edge of the pit. “You got marshmellows?”</p><p>“We're camping. They're a requirement. You wanted the full experience.”</p><p>“What are they a requirement for?”</p><p>Andrew blinked at him, registering the confusion on Neil's, but not understanding why it was there for a long moment. “I forgot. You've never had s'mores before.”</p><p>“What the fuck are s'mores?”</p><p>Andrew gave a long suffering sigh before disappearing into the trunk of the car. He hauled out a bag of fluffy white marshmellows, a bar of chocolate, and graham crackers. “S'mores. You melt a marshmellow on a stick,” he muttered as he searched the ground with squinted eyes in the near full darkness. He picked up two long sticks with suitable points on the ends. “Then you smash it between two crackers and chocolate.”</p><p>“That sounds gross,” Neil said with a grimace.</p><p>“It's delicious.”</p><p>“I don't like sweets that much.”</p><p>“You're going to try one because it's a requirement.”</p><p>Neil laughed incredulously. “By who?”</p><p>“Me.”</p><p>“I'm going to get a cavity.”</p><p>“Then brush your teeth after.”</p><p>Neil groaned, but watched Andrew intently as he speared two marshmellows, one on each stick before handing him one. His marshmellow immediately caught fire, and it burned for several moments before he thought to blow it out.</p><p>Andrew by comparison perfectly toasted his to a golden brown like he toasted marshmellows on a daily.</p><p>“How'd you do that?”</p><p>“I'm just better than you.”</p><p>Neil didn't disagree, but stuck his tongue out childishly.</p><p>Andrew lunged for him, ready to grab his tongue, but Neil retreated quickly with a laugh. Andrew demonstrated how to stack a s'more. Cracker, chocolate, marshmellow, cracker, pull the stick from the marshmellow.</p><p>When Neil tried, he nearly deposited the whole mess on the ground when he removed the stick. “Jesus Christ. Tyche is going to murder me for all this sugar.”</p><p>“You're goddess isn't going to murder you for sugar. She'll probably just murder you for all the trouble you put her through.”</p><p>“Speaking of which...” Neil trailed off as he carefully broke his s'more in half and threw the bigger of the two into the fire. “For Tyche. Hope she like it.”</p><p>“Mm. Doubt it, but who knows,” Andrew said, eyes tracing over Neil in the flickering fire light. He could see the resonance of his own magic, just a slight impression across his chest, but he couldn't see the luck spells Neil usually placed along his wrists. “You need to renew your spells. They're gone.”</p><p>“I'll do it tomorrow maybe. Let's eat these first.”</p><p>Ignoring Neil's utter lack of commitment to his own safety, Andrew bit into his s'more, smearing marshmellow and chocolate across his lip. He made a show of licking away the mess between chewing for Neil's benefit. Andrew flicked his eyes towards him, raising an eyebrow at his stare.</p><p>Neil dropped his eyes and sighed. Andrew watched, holding back a laugh, as he shoved half of his dessert into his mouth. Pure regret overshadowed his face, and he grimaced as he chewed quickly then swallowed. After another half second, he ate the other half. “That was awful. It's like eating a sugar packet.”</p><p>“This is nothing like that, but the candy you're looking for it Pixie Sticks. Also a terrible comparison.”</p><p>Neil groaned comically. “Don't tell me you used to eat those.”</p><p>“They were the only candy I could really afford. Also, the other kids in the home and I used to snort them just for a laugh. “</p><p>Mild horror overtook Neil's face. “That's disgusting.”</p><p>Andrew nodded in agreement. “It was.”</p><p>Neil laughed and watched him as he worked his way through two more s'mores before calling it quits. They packed the food and empty cans away again, brushing their teeth on the edge of the fire before dousing the flames and crawling into the tent.</p><p>In unspoken agreement, they layered the sleeping bags open on top of each other and dropped the mound of blankets in the middle. They were already bundled up in sweats and sweatshirts, but they burrowed beneath the blankets, Andrew facing the entrance as he always did when they slept.</p><p>They lay awake for hours in the dark listening to the three groups of campers shout and crow and get steadily drunker. They had no magic which made them less of an immediate threat, but the forest was alive with nighttime magic. It crept around the edges of their tent with the light footsteps of curious animals, cautious of their more powerful magic.</p><p>Each time a camper or animal got too close to Andrew's barriers, they tensed beneath the covers until they were repelled and slipped away again.</p><p>“Andrew,” Neil whispered once the three groups had quieted down, and only the crackle of their fires and gentle whispers of the barely awake still rang.</p><p>Already pressed close, Andrew rolled onto him with ease, elbows on either side of his head. They stared at each other in the darkness, eyes luminous with the release of magic they'd been allowing all day. “What do you want?”</p><p>“You,” Neil said, eyes darting down towards his lips before up again, “Always you.”</p><p>“Shut up.”</p><p>“I would if-”</p><p>Andrew pressed down, mouth to mouth, tongue to tongue, chest to chest. Their bodies were flush against each other as he hadn't allowed often in their time together. There was always space between them, enough to push away, enough to say stop, but Andrew couldn't stand the space that night. It was like a poison that only contact could cure.</p><p>His skin didn't feel right on his bones, tingling and bloating, his blood too full of magic. Neil's heartbeat against his chest eased the overflow, made him feel centered in his skin. Neil's lips against his was a drug he'd gladly take every day until he was dead.</p><p>Pressed so close, he felt when Neil responded to him. When he slipped beneath the waistband of Neil's sweats and took him in his hand, it was as if he lost all control of his magic, pouring his magic against Neil's abdomen.</p><p>“So warm.” Neil panted against his mouth though Andrew had yet to start moving, arms wrapped around the back of his neck. “I want to touch you, yes or no?” he gasped, mouthing along his chin, “You can say no. I just want to make you feel the way you make me feel.”</p><p>Andrew was half tempted to say no, not completely sure whether he was ready for Neil's hands to be on him. At the same time, he didn't want to say no at all. He wanted to know how his body responded when Neil's fingers were around him. He wanted to know if he was still that scared fourteen-year-old boy or if he'd managed to shed that old skin. He didn't want to say no simply because it was Neil asking, and not taking.</p><p>So, he said, “Yes.”</p><p>Neil was staring up at him, eyes glowing ice blue, streaked with white bolts of lightning. “Tell me if you want to stop. Don't hold back.” When Andrew nodded, he slipped his hand between their bodies and wrapped his finger's around Andrew for the first time.</p><p>Andrew almost looked away when Neil smiled in response to his gasp. He did when he couldn't hold back a tremble.</p><p>It was a tight fit between them, their hands crushed between their bodies, but they made it work.</p><p>Neil all but attacked his neck while he adjusted to the new searing heat of his palm. He couldn't stop himself from tilting his head to the side, only allowing Neil more access to the soft flesh at his pulse point.</p><p>Andrew immediately regretted the surrender as Neil sucked and nipped at his pulse. He only stopped when Andrew couldn't hold himself still, hips stuttering forward against Neil's hand.</p><p>That one push set them into motion, and they didn't last long.</p><p>Andrew's pace was fast and brutal as always, dragging Neil towards his end with gasps and moans.</p><p>Neil's pace was more experimental as he parsed out exactly what Andrew liked, using his breaths and stillness and teeth against his shoulder as clues. It didn't take long beside Andrew's quick strokes and Andrew's aborted thrusts for Neil's pace to pick up, nearly matching Andrew's.</p><p>They came one after another, Andrew's vision going white as he dug his teeth into Neil's shoulder.</p><p>His vision cleared one breath at a time as he hovered above Neil. Neil's breath fanned hot across his mouth, and those ice blue eyes were staring up wonderingly at him. His hands were held between them.</p><p>“You're blood is glowing. Here,” Neil said, cupping his cheeks, “And here.” He trailed his hands down Andrew's neck. “Darkest here.” He rubbed a thumb over the mark he'd no doubt left. “Will your magic let it stay?” He didn't wait for an answer. “Your eyes are more gold than ever.”</p><p>“Stop looking at me like that,” Andrew spat, pulling his hand from Neil's sweats.</p><p>A giddy naive smile sat thick on his lips, but unlike the other times when he easily wiped away his expression, he seemed to struggled to do the same now. “Like what?” Neil asked, a flurry of colors escaping his mouth. He was glowing too, blood tinged every color beneath his skin.</p><p>Andrew wondered if the glow had to do with where they were or how much they'd let go of their magic or what he'd just allowed to happen. How he'd let Neil weasel his was a little further into his defenses.</p><p>A nuisance. That's what he was.</p><p>Leveraging himself up on his knees, the blankets falling away from his back to allow the cold to rush in, he pinched Neil's cheeks hard. “This stupid look on your fucking face.”</p><p>“I don't have a stupid look on my face,” Neil protested, pushing halfheartedly at Andrew's chest even as his smile only got bigger. He was laughing.</p><p>“You are a menace,” Andrew growled.</p><p>“A menace you like.”</p><p>“A menace to my sanity. How many times do I have to remind you that I hate you?”</p><p>“Until I get the picture,” he said, “Remember, I'm stupid.”</p><p>“Shut up.” Andrew released his cheeks only to grip his chin, kissing him harshly.</p><p>…..</p><p>Neil:</p><p>They stayed there for three more days and nights, lounging lazily in their chairs and in their makeshift bed. Finding a deserted section of beach out of site of the lifeguard to wade into the pond's cool water. Hiking trails that led to beautiful natural scenery where the kissed on sun warmed rocks. They even returned to the falls once.</p><p>They only came across the other campers once, the three groups having come together to make one large mob of babbling, noisy people that Andrew glared at and Neil smiled at pleasantly. When they were spotted, the pair that had tried to bring them into the fold went silent, dropping their eyes.</p><p><em>'Get out.' </em>The voice sounded like his mother, like Andrew, like how he imagined Tyche, like the voices of all the protections spells that had ever been cast on him. The voices that had kept him from walking astray or into a trap. The bitter taste of a lie filled his mouth, but without speaking to someone directly, he wasn't sure what the spell was picking up. Whatever it was, Neil knew they didn't want any part of it.</p><p>“Afternoon! Great weather for a hike!” a woman said jovially as they passed, ignoring Andrew's narrowed eyes in favor of returning Neil's smile.</p><p>“Yes,” Neil agreed. He laughed, bumping into Andrew and wrapping his fingers around his wrist. When they were about to turn a bend in the path, Neil glanced surreptitiously back at the group. The pair that had dropped their eyes before were doing so again. Only this time, Neil saw the ripple of a glamour across their faces.</p><p>Turning back, he slipped the tips of his fingers into Andrew's palm, the warmth a comfort as his heart began to race. “We need to run. Now. We have to go.”</p><p>…..</p><p>Andrew didn't ask questions, running down the path after him.</p><p>They broke down their site and filled the car in a fraction of the time it took them to set up, working feverishly, but quietly as they kept an eye out for any indication they had followed. As they dropped the tent, they found poorly hidden signs of attempted forced entry. Hash marks across the ground. Freshly spilled blood at the southern tip of the site. Burned feathers along an edge.</p><p>With their trip cut short, they packed almost somberly and without comment. In the car, Neil said, “Your wards held up, but they were really trying to break them. With enough time, they might have.”</p><p>“I couldn't feel their magic. What tipped you off?” Andrew asked, taking turns at breakneck speeds, completely disregarding anything else happening around them.</p><p>Neil ran his teeth along his tongue, scraping away the taste of the lie. “Glamour. Kind of tastes like swamp water. I don't know what happened to those two campers who tried to talked to us originally, but that wasn't them. I just don't get how they found us.”</p><p>Andrew kept his eyes on the road, but his voice was steady as he said, “Matt knew where we were going.”</p><p>Neil cut his eyes hard at Andrew. “He wouldn't tell just anyone.”</p><p>“Doesn't mean his phone can't get hacked. Doesn't mean a conversation can't be overhead.”</p><p>A shiver shot down Neil's spine. He stared out the windshield. “Do you want to go back to South Carolina?”</p><p>“No amount of murderous psychopaths is going to keep me from trying every flavor of gelato in New York.”</p><p>Blinking towards Andrew in confusion, Neil simply asked, “What?”</p><p>“We're going gelato hunting when we get there.”</p><p>“Why? When did we agree on that?”</p><p>“<em>We,</em>” Andrew emphasized, “didn't. I did. You chose camping and visiting Matt. I'm choosing gelato.”</p><p>“You're a tyrant. A sugar crazed tyrant. You know I don't like sweets.”</p><p>“More for me.”</p><p>Despite his hammering heartbeat, Neil still found himself calming. They hadn't gotten caught yet. They still had time, and they still had spells to cast. His father's people couldn't get lucky twice in a row, catching up to them that quickly. Right?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. New York City, New York Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Matt, Dan, and gelato</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for those who commented last chapter! I sincerely appreciate it. Comments give me life and drive. So, thank you.</p><p>I apologize for the delay, also for whatever crazy typos you guys find. Last week was a bear. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post again until the week of the 23rd. I'll try my best to have something good for y'all. We'll be getting into the real meat soon. These last chapters have really been all feel good fluff chapters and a bit of building. I'll see you guys again soon! Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Andrew:</p><p>“Neil!” Matt called, engulfing Neil in a crushing hug as he flung the massive front door to his mother's house open.</p><p>They were standing in front of a brick-faced townhouse, the street lined with maples and family friendly cars. Andrew, Neil and the Maserati were the most out of place things on the street. He preferred not to fit in in a place like that, where perfect little families hid all of their bruises and blood behind closed doors. Nobody was perfect, and he hated the facade neighborhoods like that put on. That wasn't his kind of neighborhood, and they weren't his kind of people either.</p><p>Standing back and away from the bear of a man, Andrew listened as Neil's spine popped in protest.</p><p>Matt and Dan also stood out glaringly on the steps, decked out in Palmetto orange t-shirts that made him want to gag just a little. “Neil, Andrew, hi.” Dan stepped around Matt, smiling widely at Andrew. Once Matt had released Neil, she took her turn wrapping him in her arms, though more restrained than her boyfriend.</p><p>They didn't even look at Andrew as if they were going to greet him in the same way, keeping their distance as usual which was fine by him. “Hey, Andrew,” Matt said, nodding at him.</p><p>He didn't reply, standing on the last step, far enough away that the magic leaking out of Matt and Dan's pores didn't aggravate his own. After coming off his drugs at the beginning of the year and becoming intimate with Neil, his magic's immediate reaction to others' magic had calmed, only prickling instead of outright repelling them.</p><p>They'd been away from the team for nearly a week now, and he wasn't keen on finding out if his magic had reverted back to its original ways.</p><p>Dan and Matt's magics were leaking from all of their crevices, too much magic in too little space. That was a clear sign that they'd just had sex, and Andrew wished he'd never realized the he could figure out a person's sex life from their magic alone.</p><p>He didn't know if it had to do with his healing magic or protection magic or some random recessive family gene for love magic, but he could tell everything about a person's sex life from their magic, let along too much about the actual person themselves. He could tell everything from how often they had sex to whether they enjoyed it to who they were having sex with. Nobody really ever thought about it, but a person's magic told everything about them if it was paid attention to.</p><p>Which was information Andrew neither needed nor wanted. He didn't care about anyone, but the people that were important to him.</p><p>Dan grinned. “As talkative as ever, I see,” she commented over Neil's shoulder. Not unhappily and not at all surprised. “I know it's only been a week, but it's good to see you guys. You look relaxed. Matt said you went camping?”</p><p>Neil nodded, extracting himself from Dan's arms. “Taconic State Park.”</p><p>“You cut your stay a little short,” Matt said, shoving his hands into his pockets and glancing between them, “Weren't you planning on staying out there for like a week? Longer?”</p><p>Neil glanced at Andrew. “We just got bored.”</p><p>Andrew cut his eyes sharply at Neil. “We were never planning on staying out there for a week.”</p><p>Conceding, Neil shrugged. “Like I said, until we got bored. That was long enough, and we both need a shower.”</p><p>Dan wrinkled her nose around a smile. “You smell like it.”</p><p>“And you two smell like sex. We all need a shower,” Andrew snapped.</p><p>Neil dropped his hands on his hips. “You're being a lot for someone who just barreled down the highway at a hundred miles an hour and avoided several police cars. I'm still baffled by how.”</p><p>Andrew cut his eyes to Neil. “That's a big word for you.”</p><p>“I'll show you a big word.”</p><p>“How about-”</p><p>Matt cut in, cheeks burning red as he cleared his throat. “I'll show you to your room. Then we can get dinner and chat. Unless you two are tired and would rather sleep.”</p><p>“Dinner's good,” Neil decided for them, narrowing his eyes at Andrew before he could open his mouth, “Is your mom going to eat with us?”</p><p>Matt shook his head. “She's prelims for a tournament for her protege today, but she already set aside time for dinner tomorrow.”</p><p>“Okay. Cool.”</p><p>'<em>Not cool</em>,' Andrew though, but he wasn't going to say that. Matt's mother's magic was minor, just a tad of strength magic that made her a terror in the ring. Strength magic was an overbearing, pushy kind of magic that made him nauseous to be around. Manipulation, a creeping, sickly magic, was worse. Whether he was born that way or had learned to be that way, he didn't know, but he couldn't stand the feel of them against his skin. He was lucky that Matt's magic didn't do the same.</p><p>Matt and Dan led the way inside and immediately up a set of stairs. The house was all white walls and dark wood furniture and soaring ceilings.</p><p>“The guest room had a connected bathroom. Mom said she left towels and some other stuff in there,” Matt said as they stopped in front of a black wood door with 'Guest' written in red across the paint. “We'll be downstairs when you're done.”</p><p>Andrew pushed into the room before they were done talking, dropping his supplies bag on the left side of the bed before disappearing into the bathroom. He wanted to wash off the accumulated days of sweat and dirt off him, but stopped in the middle of the bathroom. He kept himself from laughing as Neil closed the door. When he heard the clock of the lock though, he let out several hysterical huffs of breath.</p><p>Neil frowned as he walked in. “What are you-” Red climbed up his neck and face, his magic going spiky with embarrassment. “What does Matt's mom think we're doing while we're here?” he asked, staring at the wicker basket with a box of unopened condoms, lube, massage oils and several other items. The basket boasted a giant orange and white bow, and a note that they both ignored.</p><p>“Each other, evidently,” Andrew said, trying to compose himself, but failing as he lifted the lube, “At least she sprung for the good shit.” Despite his mirth, his magic was beginning to huddle close in his chest, tightening and shrinking as it used to when confronted with a bad situation he couldn't escapse. His body was growing cold.</p><p>That... that type of intimacy... The thought of it made him sick to his stomach. He trembled, throat constricting. He wasn't ready for that. He wasn't sure he'd ever be ready to be that intimate with Neil, even if he were topping.</p><p>Neil's presence wasn't calming in that moment.</p><p>Nausea curled in his stomach, bile rising up his throat.</p><p>Neil pulled the bottle from his hand without comment, setting it back in the basket and sliding it into the cabinet and out of sight. “Well, that seems a little presumptuous,” he said, but his tone asked, '<em>Are you okay?</em>'</p><p>“Yes,” Andrew agreed, but his tone said, '<em>No</em>.'</p><p>Neil nodded, taking a step back from him, giving him more space. “Shower alone or together?”</p><p>“Alone.”</p><p>“I'll be napping.” Turning, Neil left. He didn't ask. He didn't make a comment. He simply understood, and took his leave.</p><p>Andrew would never stop being grateful for everything Neil did for him, but one day he might just find a way to thank him.</p><p>…..</p><p>Neil:</p><p>Neil was lying in bed when Andrew opened the bathroom door, but despite being completely awake, he listened to Andrew move around the room without opening his eyes. There was the zipping of a backpack, shuffling feet, and then the bed dipping with his weight.</p><p>Andrew's warm clean scent enveloped Neil as he dropped down beside him, as close to Neil as possible without actually touching him.</p><p>Neil had to wonder if Andrew was forcing himself to be close or if he'd actually calmed down.</p><p>Neil turned his head to the side and opened his eyes to look at Andrew's half lidded eyes and half hidden mouth. Andrew's hand was curled in a fist close to his chest, and Neil held out his hand, palm up.</p><p>Andrew dropped a heavy chunk of tumbled rose quartz and a small one of snowflake obsidian into his hand. Natural moon magic radiated from the stones, tickling his palm.</p><p>Neil glanced at his hand, and back up to Andrew. “I don't know what this means,” he told Andrew truthfully. He'd never needed an apparatus to channel or mediate his magic. He'd been taught to only need his deities, and even then, that he shouldn't rely on them. Unfortunately, that left a gap in his understanding when it came to Andrew's craft. He could recognize some of the stones Andrew used, but didn't know what they were for.</p><p>Andrew covered Neil's hand with his, trailing his fingers over Neil's wrist. “Snowflake obsidian for balancing, to break certain thinking and stress patterns. Rose quartz for clearing out negative emotions and...” He trailed off, closing his eyes.</p><p>“Self-love,” Neil provided because he at least knew that, “You look tired.”</p><p>Andrew didn't respond.</p><p>“Do you need to talk to Bee?”</p><p>“No. I just need you. Just... don't move. Don't touch me.”</p><p>Neil smiled gently, warmth burning in his chest. “You're already touching me.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>Neil closed his eyes again. He could feel Andrew's eyes on him, but he could only feel the vague outline of his magic hidden away in his chest. He was already drifting off again, exhausted from the drive and letting his magic go so freely over the past few days and sheer amount of contentment at just existing with Andrew. “They're going to wonder where we are,” he mumbled on the very edge of sleep.</p><p>“Let them wonder. They can wait.”</p><p>Neil would have liked to protest, but he was too comfortable to want to ruin the moment. “Okay.”</p><p>…..</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>Andrew watched Neil sleep for nearly two hours. His hair was drying and he knew it'd be sticking up all over his head, but he didn't want to move and wake Neil. At the slightest movement, Neil would wake up again, but he looked peaceful when he slept. It was the only time he looked peaceful, truly relaxed.</p><p>In the end, he wasn't the one to wake Neil. On the bedside table, his phone vibrated several times in a row.</p><p>Neil opened his eyes immediately, his fingers twitching beneath Andrew's. He yawned, sitting up and pushing a hand through his hair. “What time is it?” he mumbled even as he reached for his phone. He was silent as his eyes flicked across the screen.</p><p>“Who is it?”</p><p>“Matt and Dan wondering where we are or if they should just get dinner on their own.” Neil ran a hand down his face, but even as he considered, their stomachs growled simultaneously. Laughing, he said, “I'll let them know we're coming down, but you should brush your hair first.” Neil held his hand up, fingers spread, at the side of his head. “You look like a rooster.</p><p>Sitting up beside him, still palm to still palm, Andrew carded his fingers through his hair. “It's because I'm a cock.”</p><p>“Jesus- Let's go downstairs.”</p><p>Dan and Matt were waiting for them in the huge living room, a game of War abandoned between them. “Finally,” Dan groaned, standing and stretching, “I thought you two were fucking or something, but it was so quiet. What the hell were you doing?”</p><p>“Sleeping,” Neil said, following them out the door. He kept his distance from Andrew, letting him gravitate as he saw fit, magic reaching out tentatively, but never touching him. “Hey, do you know any good gelato places in the city?”</p><p>…..</p><p>Neil:</p><p>Dinner went by quickly as they stuffed as many slices of pizza in their mouths as possible before the restaurant closed.</p><p>“I bet you can't eat more slices than Dan,” Andrew said offhandedly when their questions started getting a little too personal. He knew Andrew was stirring the pot only to shut them up, but he hadn't really wanted to answer questions either.</p><p>It worked better than Neil that it should have. Dan and Matt took up Andrew's challenge readily, and Neil spent the rest of dinner keeping track of their battle. Dan won by a two slice margin, and Matt spent the rest of the walk back groaning and burping.</p><p>The upside?</p><p>They didn't have any leftovers to bring back out of two large pizzas.</p><p>“Thanks for the food,” Neil said, stopping outside the door to the guest room, “And for the room.”</p><p>“No problem,” Matt grinned widely.</p><p>Dan stepped into his space, hugging Neil close and pressing a kiss to his cheek. That was the first time she had ever done that, and Neil was shocked into silence. “It's great to have you here. Tomorrow, Matt and I are going to help his mom with the tournament set-up so you'll have all day to yourselves. Don't spend the entire time in bed.” Ignoring how stock still he was, she winked and stepped back.</p><p>Shaking himself, Neil smiled. He did that a lot now, he'd noticed. Smiled. Smiled genuinely, not just to gain someone's trust. He felt like he hadn't had to fake a smile in years, but knew it had only been a few months. It always caught him off guard. “Don't worry about that. We're going gelato hunting tomorrow.”</p><p>Dan laughed.</p><p>Matt joined her, saying, “You don't like sweets.”</p><p>“And he knows it. Goodnight.”</p><p>They waved, turning towards their own door. “Night, Neil.”</p><p>Neil slipped into the room, closing the door behind him. Andrew was already tucked in beneath the covers. He flipped idly through his grimoire, ignoring Neil. “What are you looking up?” he asked despite that as he detoured into the bathroom to brush his teeth and take a quick shower.</p><p>When he climbed in next to Andrew, he stared at him. “Stones,” Andrew answered.</p><p>Neil glanced at the open page, seeing his name above Nicky's, Aaron's, Kevin's and the rest of the team followed by different crystals. He turned his eyes back to Andrew before he could really internalize anything. “We should go to bed.”</p><p>Andrew clicked his pen in answer, closing it in his grimoire and setting it aside. They shut off the lights and tucked in.</p><p>…..</p><p>“We're going to get diabetes,” Neil said, staring at the table in mild disgust, “Or more, you are.”</p><p>Andrew looked at him, and said straight-faced, “I'll die happy then.”</p><p>“You have like six scoops in front of you.”</p><p>“Seven. And I repeat, I'll die happy.”</p><p>“Christ- you're the absolute most sometimes. A drama queen.” Neil nursed a cup of coffee as he watched, staring at the utter riot of sugar in front of Andrew. To be fair, the cups were small children sizes, but that didn't help the fact that there was seven. “Are you even going to be able to try any other flavors at the next stop? Why didn't you just try the tasters they offered?”</p><p>“This is better.”</p><p>Neil grimaced. “I don't think it is. And my question still stands.”</p><p>“Yes, I'll be able to try more.”</p><p>“I don't believe you.”</p><p>Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Are you betting against me?”</p><p>Neil stared at him for a second, and shrugged. “Yeah, I am. I honestly don't think you're going to make it to the fifth spot.”</p><p>“You clearly don't know me that well.”</p><p>Neil raised an eyebrow. “I know you well enough.” He took a sip from his cup before asking, “What do I get if I win?”</p><p>“Not getting a knife to the face?”</p><p>“That's not a a fair prize. It's not fun.”</p><p>Andrew's jaw worked before he answered. “What do you want?”</p><p>“Teach me how to use magic like you do.”</p><p>Andrew snorted. “You could never learn that.”</p><p>Neil grinned. “That's what I want as my prize.”</p><p>“Fine.” Andrew dipped into the first cup, and his face immediately twisted at the flavor. Shoving the spoon back in the cup, he pushed it towards Neil before grabbing for another. “Eat that. It's disgusting.”</p><p>Neil sighed, pulling the up closer. “What is it?”</p><p>“Black licorice.”</p><p>He frowned up at Andrew. “You hate black licorice. Why did you get it? Didn't the card list it as the flavor?”</p><p>“It just said anise.”</p><p>Neil couldn't stop himself from laughing, hand pressed over his mouth as his shoulder shook silently. He pressed his lips into a thin line, trying not to grin. “Andrew, anise tastes like black licorice.”</p><p>Andrew's eyes jumped up from cup. “What?”</p><p>“That's it. Anise tastes like black licorice.”</p><p>“Fuck you.”</p><p>Every head in the parlor turned towards them, but Neil couldn't help his laughter. “I didn't so it!”</p><p>…..</p><p>They moved from gelato parlor to gelato parlor, walking for blocks and enjoying the sights. It's only two when they reach the fifth spot, Neil sighing out his defeat, and three when they reach the seventh.</p><p>The street are full of people, congested in a way Neil had never realized a place could be. Portland had been bad, but nothing compared to the streets of New York, and Neil found himself wordlessly slipping beneath stoops of apartment building and into empty alleys and little novelty shops along their routes to catch his breath. Andrew always followed him without question.</p><p>Still, he enjoyed the architecture, people watching, eavesdropping and petting the dogs that jumped in him. It was the only time he wished he had a phone with a camera, or a camera in general. To document the memories that he was making.</p><p>“I don't even know how you're still walking,” Neil said though he was smiling. They were standing close, backs of their hands brushing as Andrew considered the selection. “This was the last one on the list, right?”</p><p>“Sheer force of will,” Andrew told him without answering his actual question, and trailed a finger over the outside of the case above the cards with pretty cursive. He stopped at '<em>Cioccolato All' Azteca</em>', a spiced hot chocolate flavor that they hadn't seen in the other shops.</p><p>He ordered before turning to Neil. “Yes, this is the last one,” he said and held out a hand.</p><p>After a night and morning of restraining himself from touching Andrew in any way, Neil immediately slotted their fingers together. They weren't much for holding his hands, but he was happy for any contact at all. He waited until Andrew had his cone in hand and they were out on the street again before continuing their conversation. “We've been out all day. You think Matt and Dan are back yet and wondering where we are?”</p><p>“Maybe. Probably not.”</p><p>After a moment, Neil opened his mouth and started to turn to ask a question when a burst of laughter fell from his mouth.</p><p>The end of Andrew's cone was sticking out of his mouth, the scoop and top of the cone completely encased in his mouth. He flicked his eyes towards Neil, raising an eyebrow and trying to mumbled around the cone.</p><p>Neil could see the smallest of smiles tugging at the corner of his mouth. “What are you doing?” he gasped through his laughter, hand covering his mouth as tears built along his lashes. “<b>What are you doing</b>?”</p><p>Andrew's response was a muffled, garbled mess, and the tip of the cone bobbed up and down as he attempted to talk around the intrusion.</p><p>“Stop!”</p><p>Andrew only continued, using Neil's hand to pull him closer, the cone tip just inches away from his face.</p><p>For a moment, Neil forgot that Andrew liked everyone else in the world could be funny at times, and he was caught off guard. He was nearly sent into hysterics from laughing so hard. He couldn't stop laughing.</p><p>Eyesight blurry with tears, he didn't notice Dan and Matt standing at a bus stop watching the entire debacle go down.</p><p>“Gods, stop! Eat like a normal person.”</p><p>Andrew shook his head before biting through the waffle shell and sucked the tip into his mouth. The sound Neil made was inhuman, and only made Andrew smirk.</p><p>“You're the devil.”</p><p>Still chewing, Andrew began to open his mouth and Neil covered his mouth with his hand. “You're disgusting.”</p><p>Still chewing, Andrew went to open his mouth and Neil covered his mouth with his hand. “You're disgusting.”</p><p>When Andrew finally swallowed, he pulled Neil's hand away only to pull him down into a kiss. They kissed for several long moment, fierce and then soft and then fierce again, ignoring the whistling and catcalling from passersby.</p><p>Andrew's mouth tasted like chocolate instead of cigarettes this time, and Neil never realized how much he enjoyed the taste of chocolate until that moment.</p><p>They pulled apart after a moment, and Dan and Matt took their chance to make their presence known. Walking towards them, Matt called too loudly, “Hey, Dan, isn't that Neil and Andrew? Hey, guys!” and Neil's face went hot with embarrassment.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. New York City, New York Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dinner with Matt's mom doesn't exactly go as planned.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for all the love, everyone, I know I'm terrible at keeping up to date. Hopefully y'all are taking advantage of the quarantine (if you're under one) like I am. I got back early and immediately went into a stay at home mandate, so here's a chapter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands.</p><p>Let me know whatever you loved, didn't love, felt is working, isn't working and so on, in a comment. I love comments. They sustain me. Kudos are great and I love seeing them, but comments are amazing.</p><p>Also, sorry for any typos. I rewrote the chapter and then lost the will to edit. I hope it's not terrible. All my love for anyone who is still here with me.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Andrew:</p><p>“So, that's... going well,” Dan said carefully and uncomfortably while they watched bread bake in Randy Boyd's kitchen.</p><p>The entire house smelled of yeast and wheat, a heady scent that enveloped him warmly. The smell made Andrew crave home even though none of the places he'd stayed had ever smelled like that. They'd never been home. Fox Tower was the closest, but that was temporary. In three more years, he'd be gone and on to somewhere new while he waited for Neil to finish his last year. When he finally had a home of his own, one he made himself with Neil in his bed and space for family to visit, he wanted it to smell like baking bread all the time. There was nothing he wanted more, and he so rarely craved anything that his want was overwhelming.</p><p>Andrew looked at Dan, but didn't answer.</p><p>“I just mean that the two of you seem really happy. Happier than I've seen either of you.”</p><p>“You've never seen us off the court.”</p><p>“I have. A little. Eden's on Halloween. Spring Break in the mountains. Baltimore-”</p><p>Andrew's eyes cut a hard line at her. “We're not talking about Baltimore. Never bring it up.”</p><p>Dan raised her hands, palms out. “I'm just saying,” she continued, “I'm happy for you. If anyone deserves to be happy, it's you two.” She paused, frowning. “Well, Neil for sure. You've done some really sketchy shit that I still think could have been handled better. As long as you don't book Neil a ticket to hell alongside your first class ticket, I think it'll be fine. He's happy with you.”</p><p>“We wouldn't be foxes if we got what we deserved,” Andrew muttered, “And Neil managed to book his ticket a long time ago. He didn't need my fucking help.”</p><p>Dan laughed, and a sly smirk slid onto her face. “So, who's walking who down the aisle when you two get married? I think Matt would walk Neil if he asked.”</p><p>Matt and Neil stepped into the kitchen, Neil oblivious to the conversation as he explained a play he'd watch in a game with Kevin.</p><p>Matt raised an eyebrow at them as Dan let out another laugh as Andrew's expression soured.</p><p>“Don't got giving anyone stupid ideas.”</p><p>“It's not a stupid idea,” Dan said, still laughing.</p><p>Neil glanced away from Matt, grinning as he asked, “What's a stupid idea? What are you guys talking about?”</p><p>“Nothing,” Andrew replied before Dan could say anything.</p><p>…..</p><p>“Andrew, it's nice to finally really meet you!” Randy Boyd cried enthusiastically as she pushed into the dining room around Matt and Dan. She approached Andrew with arms thrown wide before anyone could stop her. “I can finally thank you!”</p><p>Matt was at the door, watching the exchange wearily. “Mom, I wouldn't-” he started, but her arms were already around Andrew.</p><p>Andrew stood stock still in her embrace, unable to move as nausea roiled through his stomach. Normally, he would have had a knife out before she'd ever gotten close enough to touch her, but something about her, whether that had been her strength magic or the fact that she reminded her of his foster mother, had frozen him in place. Her magic reached out to greet his, grabbing onto his magic. It jerked away from her, spikes shooting out to protect him, but they didn't do anything.</p><p>“You did so much for my son. I can never thank you enough, but I'd like to try,” Randy murmured warmly in his ear.</p><p>A tremble threatened to wrack his body, and he forcibly held it in check in the middle of his chest. Ice and acid poured into his system simultaneously.</p><p>He still couldn't move.</p><p>A hand pressed against his back, familiar and strong, warm with magic that slid along his skin. Sticky heat enveloped him in the smell of rain, and off in the distance, he heard thunder roll. Despite knowing that everything was merely a hallucination caused by Neil's magic trying to comfort him, he couldn't help but believe it was reality.</p><p>“It's nice to meet you, Ms. Boyd. Matt's told us a lot about you,” Neil said conversationally as he extracted Andrew from her grip.</p><p>He turned and found the closest bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him. He stood over the toilet, panting as saliva pooled in his mouth.</p><p>Randy Boyd's magic had slipped beneath his skin in search of his own, and stayed there. It bounced through his body, looking for an out that his body wasn't equipped for. He didn't have an outlet for destructive magic, his fingers only meant for the healing and protection magics he was so adept at. The only time he'd tried strength magic, he'd broken his fingers.</p><p>The saliva that slipped from his lips was black with his tainted magic.</p><p>The light tap of fingertips on the bathroom door was like gunshots in his skull. He flinched, dropping to his knees.</p><p>“Andrew?” Neil's voice was barely audible unlike the concern laced through his words. The door eased open, and Andrew cursed Neil's lockpicking abilities as he closed the door behind him. He sat down on the floor beside him, staring at the side of his face. “Are you sick?” He leaned in, pulling Andrew's bangs out of his face. “What's that black stuff?”</p><p>“Magic.”</p><p>“Randy's?”</p><p>Andrew's response was to wretch, black and mustard yellow splattering the bowl. “I'll be done soon,” he gasped.</p><p>Neil moved closer, his breath warm and moist against Andrew's ear.</p><p>With strength magic in his veins and Neil's body so close, he couldn't stop the memories. He couldn't stop his immediate reaction.</p><p>'<em>You look so perfect when you're under me.</em>'</p><p>His magic burst from him in near lethal spikes, covering his body as he snarled, “Don't touch me!”</p><p>Neil was retreating before he spoke, as soon as Andrew went rigid, hands thrown up. His back hit the door, and overhead, the lights flickered as mist oozed from his pores. Lightning flickered through his eyes.</p><p>“Don't touch me,” Andrew snarled again, unable to feel anything but Drake's weight and breath and magic on him. He wondered what he looked like to Neil, feral and animalistic with his eyes shining cold and his magic becoming a physical thing around him. He must have looked like a regret.</p><p>Neil was calm as he watched his though, only betrayed by the swirling mist and blue of his eyes. “I won't. I'm going to leave, Drew, because I don't think you can have me around right now. I'm going to tell the others you won't be able to make it to dinner. I'll sleep of the couch tonight. When you can stand me being around or when you want to talk, you'll know where to find me.”</p><p>Andrew dropped his eyes. “Get out.”</p><p>“Okay.” Neil turned and stepped through the door. Before he left, he locked it again.</p><p>Andrew felt emotion well up inside him, emotion other than survival, but he wasn't sure what it was. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. Instead, he leaned over the toilet and vomited.</p><p>…..</p><p>Neil:</p><p>Neil stood against the hall wall staring at the bathroom door for several long moment, just breathing through his surprise and fear and concern until he knew that he wouldn't raise alarms immediately.</p><p>“Where's Andrew?” Dan asked worriedly before either Matt or his mother realized Neil had returned without him.</p><p>Neil shook his head, still working to calm his nerves and magic as he trailed mist behind him. The hallway was filled to the brim with it, the light a hazy sun overhead. “He's not coming.”</p><p>“Wha-” She stopped, getting a good look at him. He knew his eyes would be glowing, the mist still trickling from him. “What happened? Are you alright? Did you to have a fight?” Her eyes grew wide, and she stepped close to him, voice low. “Is that blood?”</p><p>“I'm fine,” Neil muttered under his breath, sliding his bleeding hand behind his back.</p><p>He wasn't really fine. He was being tracked by Tyche knew who, and Andrew was having severe reaction to even the thought of touch. That would have been fine, but Andrew had just tried to legitimately hurt him when he hadn't in months. No, Neil wasn't alright because what if Andrew decided to leave after everything was said and done.</p><p>Dan grumbled her displeasure, but led him towards the dining room where boxes of Chinese food were set out. She disappeared into the kitchen for merely a moment before returning to shove a towel into Neil's chest.</p><p>Matt and Randy looked up, grinning widely.</p><p>Matt's smile fell as he realized Andrew wasn't with Neil. “Is everything alright?” he asked as Neil wrapped his hand.</p><p>For the first time and definitely not the last, he wished Matt and Dan weren't such similar mother hens.</p><p>“Andrew's not going to be able to eat with us,” he told the room, his smile wide and fake, “He ate too much gelato today, and it made him sick.”</p><p>Matt and Dan's eyes narrowed on him, but Randy cooed sadly.</p><p>“Poor boy. Is he going to be alright? Does he need anything?” she asked, “I can cut up a lemon and put it in some water.”</p><p>Neil shook his head. “He's just got to get it out of his system and rest. Maybe we can try for breakfast or lunch tomorrow. I think we're going to head back to South Carolina early.”</p><p>Matt looked crestfallen. “What? But you just got here!”</p><p>Dan must have stepped on his foot beneath the table because he jumped and looked at her.</p><p>“That's too bad. At least you got to see the city a little though. Maybe we can try again another time,” she compromised. She stared Neil down though making it very clear that he'd have to either provide an explanation or make this up to her one day.</p><p>He nodded to both her statement and unspoken demand. “Let me make him a plate just in case he's feeling up to eating later, and then I'll sit down.”</p><p>…..</p><p>After the trio had retired, leaving Neil to his own devices in the living room, he'd quickly showered and changed. Lying on the couch, Neil listened to Andrew pad out of the bathroom and reheat the food he had put aside for him before going back to the guest room. The whole process only took five minutes, and Neil felt Andrew's eyes on him the entire time.</p><p>Matt found him ten minutes later still staring at the ceiling with a blanket over his legs, raising an eyebrow. “Did you guys fight?” he asked, sitting across from Neil, “Dan said something might have happened.”</p><p>“Not exactly.” They were silent as Neil sat up to face Matt, staring at a spot between his feet. He clasped his fingers between his knees, and Matt stared at him until he finally sighed. He didn't want to talk about what was going on, but at the same time, he knew that was an old habit from his days of running. Matt was his friend, and he had promised not to lie to him anymore. “There's been some stuff going on since the end of the year. Since Baltimore really, but we were managing that. Something set Andrew off.”</p><p>Matt nodded, mimicking Neil's posture. “I could see that. What's going on?”</p><p>“Someone had been trying to track me for awhile. The shouldn't really need to since everyone knows where I cam now, but maybe they were trying to keep tabs on me, or just waiting for the moment I wasn't with you guys. I don't know. We figured it was one of my father's men. They haven't been able to get a hold of me though. Andrew refreshes my spells as much as possible, but something happened while we were driving to the campsite. I think someone got their hooks in me just enough when the spells were weak. They showed up at the campsite after a couple days, and we left as soon as we realized they were there.”</p><p>“That's why you showed up early?” Matt shouted, and Neil shot him a look. “Sorry, but honestly? Do you think they're still on to you? Or do you think you lost them?”</p><p>“I don't know.” Neil lifted his eyes back towards the ceiling before pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes and groaning.</p><p>“That's not all. Being hunted is just normal business. So what's really going on?” Matt asked, leaning across the table and tapping Neil on the knee. “Come on. Tell ol' brother Matt your woes.”</p><p>Neil pressed in his palms harder until colorful lights burst behind his lids, trying to press the heat back. “I'm scared.”</p><p>“Of what?”</p><p>Neil considered what he wanted to say and what he could say to Matt. There were things needed to talk about, things he couldn't talk to Andrew about. Not when they were about him. Not when he didn't want to push him into something he wasn't ready for.</p><p>“You're mom left a basket of... things for us in the bathroom, which was the original problem.” Neil gave Matt the rundown of events leading up to dinner. “He tried to impale me with his magic after your mom hugged him. I think it has something to do with her magic.”</p><p>“My mom doesn't have strong magic though. She just has-” He cut off, jaw tightening. “She has strength magic.”</p><p>“Right.” They didn't say Drake's name, but they felt it lingering in the air between them. Nausea roiled in his stomach at the thought that his touch could elicit enough of Drake's memory to hurt Andrew. “The look in his eyes... it was like he didn't trust me anymore. What if he realizes he can't handle this anymore? What if he decides he doesn't want to be with me because there's too much?”</p><p>Matt sighed, standing and moving to sit next to Neil. “That's not going to happen, okay? He's just got things to work through, just like you. Whatever it is, he'll figure it out. Just give him space, and don't worry if he has to pull back. Sometimes that happens, especially with people who carry trauma around.”</p><p>Neil nodded. “Thanks, Matt, but I think we need to head back anyway. Especially if I'm still being tracked. I need to get behind the protections of Fox Tower so we can figure out an action plan.”</p><p>“That's fair. We'll see each other in two weeks. We'll try this again at Christmas, or maybe next summer.” Matt stood, clapping Neil on the shoulder. “Hang in there. You made it this far. You guys will be fine.”</p><p>Neil nodded, and Matt disappeared up the stairs.</p><p>…..</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>It was just after ten and he'd eaten the plate of food Neil had left him when a knock came at the guest bedroom door. Two short taps that meant it wasn't Neil. He would have guessed Matt, but he didn't have the guts. He guessed Randy Boyd wouldn't have even tried. That left one person. He pulled open the door. “Dan.”</p><p>“Andrew,” she said, leaning back against the opposite wall, “I'd like to talk.”</p><p>“Well, I wouldn't.”</p><p>“I want to talk about why Neil showed up looking like he'd just been slapped.”</p><p>Andrew gritted his teeth. He was exhausted and all he wanted to do was press close to Neil, but knew he wouldn't be able to handle touch. If someone touched him in the state he was in, he'd end up killing someone.</p><p>Even if that person was Neil.</p><p>He needed to talk to Bee.</p><p>“I'm not talking about that.” Andrew started to slam the door in Dan's face, but she grabbed the edge and held fast.</p><p>“Well, I am. Even if you only listen.” Her glare was intent. She wouldn't leave until she said her piece.</p><p>Returning her glare, he finally released the door and retreated into the room. She stumbled forward when he let go of the door, but he ignored her grumble. Turning back to her, he crossed his arms over his chest, arms swathed in one of Neil's sweaters. “Say your piece, and then leave. I have a long drive tomorrow.”</p><p>“You two have a long drive,” she corrected, standing straight to mirror his posture, “Did you forget Neil is here too? He's sleeping out on the couch right now for some reason. What's that about?”</p><p>Andrew remained silent, just staring at her.</p><p>Dan sighed. “Listen, Andrew, I'm not your parent and I know you wouldn't listen to me even if I tried. Still, I'm going to. Whatever is going on, don't let it affect the two of you. This is the most grounded I've ever seen either of you two, and I said earlier, the most happy. So, whatever it is, don't let him stew too long. You know how Neil can be, okay? He's stupid. You have to spell it out for him. Don't lose him over something stupid.” She raised her hands, turning back to the door. “That's all I have. I didn't really want to have a discussion.”</p><p>“Good. I wish I hadn't gotten a lecture.”</p><p>Dan grinned around the edge of the door, shrugging. “That's my job.”</p><p>“You should quit and apply for a different job. You're terrible at this.”</p><p>She shrugged again. “I just need practice.”</p><p>“Get out.”</p><p>“Good night,” she said, closing the door behind her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Lavender Pills</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>When Neil first showed up in South Carolina, he found out life was going to get a lot harder.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter came a lot quicker than the last. Hope you all like it.</p><p>Let me know what you like, what you hope to see, what you think it working or just whatever in the comments. I love you see all your feedback!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neil:</p><p>As soon as Neil stepped off the plane and found his way to a bathroom, he frantically rummaged through his bag. He could hear the bottle of suppressants rattling incessantly, calling to him with the bliss of repression. His magic had begun to crawl to the surface halfway through the flight, but he'd taken a suppressant before boarding and assumed that would be enough. Only, he hadn't anticipated the anxious magic pouring from the other passengers, filling the cabin until he was suffocating. He shouldn't have been able to feel them with such a recent dose, but something about the altitude or proximity or his own anxiety had somehow diminished the affects of the suppressants.</p><p>There was the possibility that the suppressants were just loosing their potency as Neil's body grew more accustomed to the dosage.</p><p>Stewart had procured them for him after California. After his mother's death. After his magic left a destructive path behind him as he it poured from him unchecked, a path that Stewart had to pay a lot of money to cover up.</p><p>With Mary's death fresh on his mind, he hadn't been able to put a cap on his own magic, and he'd burned through their collection of suppressants trying to. Stewart had pressed his suppliers for the strongest dosage they could make that wouldn't kill anyone.</p><p>When he'd first started taking them, he could only handle half a pill once a day. Even then, he'd almost had a panic attack with how quiet the world had gone. He'd wondered if that was the way normal people who couldn't sense magic felt. There had been so much more quiet in his head for his mind to circle around and around. So much more space to think about his dead mother.</p><p>He'd vomited and passed out almost immediately. When he'd woken, magic still tucked away in his chest, they'd tried to drop his dose to a quarter of a tablet.</p><p>He didn't let them.</p><p>Now though, he had to take one every couple of hours to keep his magic under wraps, and even then, it leaked out around the edges. He couldn't keep it up much longer, not without contacting his uncle, and that was something he didn't want to have to do. He had about a year's worth left, but at the rate he was going, he might have even less than that. He'd have to start rationing if that were even possible.</p><p>Popping the small lavender pull into his mouth, Neil swallowed it down dry and shoved the bottle back into his bag. He waited ten long minutes for the pill to begin taking effect before finding his way towards the exit where he found a particularly small blond man waiting for him.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>It took Neil Josten much longer to come out of the terminal than Andrew would have expected. He would have assumed it was something innocent like using the restroom, but he'd seen the way Neil had looked at Kevin. He'd felt the magic bubbling beneath the surface of his skin, the suppressants trying to keep his magic in and failing. He wouldn't trust the man as far as he could throw him, not until he gave him a reason to.</p><p>He doubted the man was smart enough for that, especially if he was stupid enough to sign with the Foxes.</p><p>Leaning against the wall, he stared up towards the ceiling and let his magic stretch its limbs for the first time in awhile. He's skipped his wake-up dose to meet with Neil, and without the constraints of his medication, there was no reason his magic needed to stay on a leash. Relief washed through his body while his magic pushed out and out and out, soothing the fever of a screeching child, easing a woman's migraine, calming a flight attendant's throbbing feet. He couldn't do much without physical touch or his herbs, but he still could do a little.</p><p>As the baby's screams calmed to whimpers, a blank spot entered the Arrivals area.</p><p>Neil Josten was the personification of a lack of presence, a blank spot in the middle of the crowd, a black hole without an end or beginning.</p><p>Everyone had magic whether they could use it or not. Whether it was strong or weak. Even magicless people had magic, but they were people that had such a small amount that it was unusable. It couldn't be utilized by the holder. Even then, there were people with magic that either didn't know how to use their magic. Even under suppressants, there was still the barest traces of magic on a person's skin.</p><p>All being, living and inanimate, gave off magic. Neil Josten gave off absolutely nothing as if he were already dead. Which was all the more curious as he had been actually vomiting up magic the first time.</p><p>He stared the man down as he glanced this way and that, stepping further into the crowd. It only took Neil a moment to spot him, and another to weave through the crowd to get to him. When he was close enough for Andrew to take a good look at his eyes, he found a very familiar look there.</p><p>His pupils were blown wide, and there was a dullness to them. Neil was high, and whether that was on true drugs or something else was still to be determined.</p><p>Suppressants couldn't erase someone's magical fingerprint the way whatever he was on had.</p><p>“Neil. Baggage claim,” he said simply.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Neil:</p><p>It only took a day for Neil to understand that there were almost no good times for him to take his next dose of suppressants, especially when he'd had to start taking them so frequently. By the time the first week had come to an end, he was nearly going crazy with the havoc the cousins had put his schedule through just trying to keep a lid on his magic.</p><p>He couldn't walk around with his pill bottle, so the only solution he could come up with was carrying a few around with him that he shoved deep into his pockets.</p><p>He knew he was getting sloppy by the third week, dipping out as soon as he felt his magic surfacing. When Andrew's eyes started to drift towards him more and more often. He didn't know if it was the stress the others were putting him under or the lack of sleep or whatever other reason there could be, but his doses had grown closer again.</p><p>That scared him, made him more cautious with his doses, but also stupider.</p><p>And he found everything coming to a head one afternoon after practice with the cousins.</p><p>He showered last as always, but found the locker room empty save for Andrew sitting in front of his locker after he was done. The man tossed and caught something idly, not looking at Neil when he came to a stop. “Can I get to my locker?” he asked, irritated with the afternoons events and now having to deal with the murderous midgit again.</p><p>Andrew caught the package again, and Neil finally noticed the small ziploc bag he held. A flash of lavender through plastic.</p><p>“Give that back!” Neil spat, lunging for Andrew before immediately thinking better of it.</p><p>Andrew had a knife in his hand even as Neil retreated. “I think... not.” He let the bag swing between his fingers so they could both stare at the pills hanging between them. “I've been wondering what you were on. These look professional, but still homemade.” Dull hazel eyes glanced back towards him. “You know, Coach and Abby don't allow for drugs unless they're court mandated. Kevin would burst a gasket if he knew his pet project was high on court. So, what are they?”</p><p>“Nothing!”</p><p>“Oh, they're definitely something, pushing down your magic like that. Erasing it completely.” Andrew's grin was manic. “And judging by your reaction, you seem pretty attached to them. What would happen if I just...” He trailed off, peeling open the top and holding one over his tongue.</p><p>Neil lunged forward again, catching the pill before it could hit Andrew's tongue. His side stung, shirt splayed open from Andrew's knife strike. The cut was shallow, and he held the flaps of his shirt closed, but it still hurt like a son of a bitch. “Don't,” he snarled. Blood dripped down his side, warm and slick.</p><p>The smell of blood only made him angrier.</p><p>“Oh ho,” Andrew laughed, leaning back against the lockers, “Now, what was that all about?”</p><p>Neil bit at his lip. Andrew already knew he had magic, but he didn't know what his pills were. Was it worse for him to think that he was a junkie or to know they were suppressants? Strong ones. Would he tell Kevin and Wymack if he thought he was a drug addict? Would he really be all that wrong though? Wasn't he just a different kind of addict, using the suppressants as a crutch rather than an escape? As a means to an end?</p><p>Making a decision, Neil decided to go with the truth. Or a partial truth. Partial truths were his specialty after all. “They're suppressants, but if you take a whole one, you'll go into a coma. Or vomit everywhere. Or not see your magic for a whole year.”</p><p>Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Yet you pop one every hours it seems like. So, how are you still standing? Unless you're lying.” He fished another pill from the bag, staring at it intently.</p><p>Fear slid through Neil. Not fear for Andrew, but fear of what the others would do if Andrew died from overdosing on his suppressants. What would they even do mixed with his other drugs? He was scared of what Wymack would do if he found out about them. What Kevin would do because Kevin preferred to practice with magic intact. What the cousins would do if Andrew never recovered.</p><p>“Don't,” Neil said again, trembling as he stared at the pill. He'd taken his dose over an hour before hand, and his magic slipped from his mouth in bright rainbow threads. His magic was spewing from him as if under high pressure. He was trembling with the force, nausea roiling through his body. The release had gotten worse over the couple of months since meeting Wymack, Andrew and Kevin, and he couldn't stop the storm clouds from building around him.</p><p>Andrew raised an eyebrow, watching curiously as he pressed a sparking hand to his squinting eye. “That's a lot of magic for someone who's supposed to be magicless. <em>How</em> are you standing if these suppressants are so strong?” he asked with more emphasis.</p><p>Neil's hand was trembling as he pressed the pilled he'd taken from Andrew into his mouth and swallowed dry. The effect to a moment, but eventually, his clouds dispersed and his magic slithered back into his body. The tremors took longer to subside, but eventually, they did. “I've built up a tolerance.”</p><p>Smiling wickedly, Andrew leaned forward with his elbows propped against his knees. “That's no good, Neil. What happens when you run our? Or miss a dose? Or can't get to them during a game? Are you going to pop off and kill everyone in sight?”</p><p>“I'd like to kill you right now.”</p><p>Andrew laughed. “Alas, that's not an option.” He slipped the pill back into the bag and pushed them int his pocket, passing the outside over his hip. “I think I'll keep a hold of these. For safe keeping. You understand. I'm sure you have more, so you won't miss these ones.” He stood, stepping as close to Neil as he could without being pressed flush against each other, the flat of his knife tapping along Neil's knuckles where they still held his shirt closed. “You're going to have to make a decision here, Neil. You can't keep popping pills all year. At the rate you're going, you're going to run out before December, and then where will you be? Find me when you want to let off a little steam. We'll have a long discussion about your role here.”</p><p>He stepped around Neil, but Neil didn't have the never to grab for the bag in his pocket.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Andrew:</p><p>It took Neil a lot longer than he'd anticipated for him to make a decision. It took Neil until Andrew rifled through his belongings and took the entire pill bottle, not that he believed that was all he had. It took for Andrew to put him through hell in Columbia. For him to hitchhike back to Palmetto. It took forever for Neil to make a fucking decision.</p><p>Andrew was so frustrated with the whole situation by the time Neil got himself knocked out in Columbia that he was ready to spill every secret he'd collected to both Wymack and Kevin. Threatening him hadn't made him spill his truths. Stealing his drugs hadn't made him spill his truths. Drugging him to high heaven against his will hadn't made him spill his truths.</p><p>Not until Wymack was standing between them, and Neil decided to speak fluent German.</p><p>He'd never been so utterly taken with someone who was suck a fucking mess.</p><p>“I'll be gone by out match against Edgar Allen,” Neil said, and Andrew had never been more sure of a lie in his life though he didn't think Neil knew that himself.</p><p>He knew that Neil believed every word he was saying. A junkie like him wouldn't be able to give up what the Foxes had already given him. In the end, Andrew simply said, “We're leaving.”</p><p>“Where are we going?” Neil asked, sweat dripping down his forehead, iridescent with his own magic.</p><p>Andrew didn't look at him as he said in English, “Back to the dorms. Your teammates have been annoying us ever since we got back, demanding we return to Columbia and scour the streets in search of you,” and then in German, “Somewhere to take care of your problem.” He turned a pointed look on the sky outside Wymack's window where storm clouds had gathered.</p><p>“My problem?” Neil asked in German, confused.</p><p>Sighing, Andrew spun around at the door to glare at him. “You're barely holding it together. Not many people can feel magic, but I'm sober way more sober than I'd like to be and I can tell that if you don't either take your drugs or release the magic you're literally going to implode.”</p><p>Neil pressed his lips into a thin line, but didn't argue. “I ran out. My suppressants are at the dorms.”</p><p>“Then release it is.”</p><p>Wymack, of course, had to open his mouth and meddle. “He can stay here if he wants. I can call Dan and let her know he's safe.”</p><p>Andrew didn't look at Wymack, but turned and opened the door. “Neil wants to come with me,” he said, and he didn't need a lie detector spell to know he was telling the truth.</p><p>When he climbed into his car, Neil was climbing into the passenger seat.</p><p>…..</p><p>“This looks like the kind of place someone comes to get murdered,” Neil commented as Andrew pulled into the campus construction area for the new dorm. The area was deserted, only the skeleton of a building and a dirt packed parking lot. Not even any workers around.</p><p>Andrew climbed out of the car, pulling one arm across his chest and then the other. He meticulously stretched while Neil simply stared, and he could nearly feel the confusion radiating off Neil in waves. “This is where I plan to dump your body when I kill you.”</p><p>Neil pulled himself out of the car, still staring around. He crossed his arms on the roof, but didn't move from the passenger side. They sky was thick with black clouds, the air muggy with a Summer thunder storm. Or maybe that was just Neil's magic. Possibly, it was just both simply feeding on each other.</p><p>Yawning, Andrew stepped away from the car. He'd parked on the edge of the lot, and strode out to the middle to turn and face Neil. Holding out his arms, he said, “Let's go.”</p><p>Neil rounded the car, confusion lighting his features. “What?”</p><p>“Take out the fucking contacts and let loose. I'm tired of seeing you drugged to the gills. I know you've wanted to take a swing at me, so take it while I'm giving you the chance,” Andrew said. Neil simply stared at him, and Andrew shrugged. “If you don't do it on your own, I'll just provoke you into it.”</p><p>Neil was silent for a long moment, just staring at him. Finally, he said, “You can't handle my magic.”</p><p>“Try me.”</p><p>Neil's magic was pouring from him, a faucet left completely open. His seams were coming loose, stitches popping all over his person. “Okay. Okay, bit... I warned you.”</p><p>When Neil finally released the choke hold he had on his magic, Andrew almost laughed with how drunk he felt. The rush was nothing like he'd ever felt. When the thunder rolled through the sky and the sky all but fell, he did laugh.</p><p>Neil's face broke with euphoria as his back bowed. “Oh, thank god,” he groaned. When he raised his eyes, despite the brown contacts, they were startlingly blue as lightning pulsed behind them. A grotesque smile pulled at his mouth. “Are you ready?”</p><p>Soaking wet, hair plastered to his scalp, Andrew mimicked his smile. “Yes.”</p><p>…..</p><p>Andrew woke with a sharp intake of breath, staring up at the ceiling of Randy Boyd's guest room. His body buzzed with the Neil's remembered magic. Just a ghostly film. He remembered how it had lit up his system like the Fourth of July.</p><p>But...</p><p>He could also actually feel Neil's magic buzzing along his skin. Restless and uncomfortable.</p><p>Scrubbing a hand over his arms, he swallowed and rolled out of bed before he padded shirtless from the bedroom.</p><p>In the living room, he found Neil with his armbands off, a jar of olive oil and herbs on the coffee table and a paint brush between his teeth. He fanned at the sigil on his wrist with distant eyes while the news played silently on the television.</p><p>Leaning against the hall wall, Andrew watched him for several deep breaths. “Where did you get the paint brush?”</p><p>Neil kept fanning, not looking around at him. “Found it in a drawer.” He glanced up to him. “Are you... better?”</p><p>Andrew didn't move. “Relatively. Why are you still awake?”</p><p>“You were dreaming too loudly, but I guess that would be loud whether you were dreaming or awake, huh?” Neil dropped his gaze, his fan pausing. “Are... are you going to leave me?”</p><p>Pushing away from the wall, Andrew stared at the side of Neil's head. “What?”</p><p>“Are you going to leave me?”</p><p>“Why would you think I'm going to leave? Because of what happened in the bathroom today?” Neil didn't say anything, and Andrew felt the sudden urge to strangle him. Instead, he leaned on the back of the couch close to Neil without touching him. “I'm not going to fucking leave, junkie. This shit is just something I've been working through for a long time with Bee. Sometimes it's worse than others. It doesn't have anything to do with you. I'm not going anywhere.”</p><p>Neil sighed, chuckling around the brush. “Okay, yeah. Matt said that was it.”</p><p>Dryly, Andrew said, “I'm glad to see mat knows me so well. Don't ever tell him.”</p><p>“Never.”</p><p>They stayed silent together, the air calm around them.</p><p>“You should go to sleep,” Andrew said.</p><p>“So should you.”</p><p>“I'm not tired.”</p><p>Neil looked up, hope in his eyes. “Sit with me then? We can watch a move or something.”</p><p>Andrew dropped his arms. “Sure.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Home Again</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Just a transition chapter really, and then we get into meeting the Kits soon. Also, sorry for how utterly late this is. I think it's been two honest to god weeks since I've posted. Quarantine has fucked me up, y'all.</p><p>Anyway, enjoy! Let me know how you like it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Andrew:</p><p>“What the fuck is this?”</p><p>It had been nearly two weeks since Andrew and Neil had driven back from New York, nearly two weeks into Aaron's trial. With the upper classmen coming back in the next few days, it was bound to be the first -and last- day they'd get since coming back to just take a breath before practices started.</p><p>Kevin seemed hell bent on disturbing that peace.</p><p>“What the fuck is what?” Andrew asked in a monotone. He and Neil were laid out on Abby's couch, tucked into each others' sides and looking cramped. They were comfortable though. Again. Finally.</p><p>But they weren't the same kind of comfortable as they had been before. There was something between them still. The knowledge that Drake would always haunt Andrew, no matter what either of them did. No matter how far away from the events of his childhood he got. The knowledge that sometimes Neil wouldn't be able to break through that barrier when something set him off. That Neil could set him off.</p><p>They were comfortable though, and Andrew craved his touch and his kiss and his 'yes'. This was the first time since New York Andrew could stomach his touch, and he was soaking it up as much as he could.</p><p>Or he would have been if Kevin hadn't been standing over them.</p><p>A magazine landed face up on Neil's back, and he lifted his head sleepily from Andrew's chest to stare over his shoulder at it. “Wha's tha'?” he grumbled, not attempting to reach around for it.</p><p>Instead, Andrew pulled his arm out from where it had been pinned beneath Neil and picked up the magazine. A picture of Kevin and Thea standing back to back graced the cover of one of many Exy magazines that Kevin subscribed to. “Great. You and your top can finally come out of the closet together.”</p><p>Kevin snarled, “Open it. Center fold. What the <b>fuck</b> is that?”</p><p>Sighing, already tired of playing along with Kevin, Andrew began idly leafing through the pages without much purpose. “Why don't you just say why you're so pissed? I hate guessing games.”</p><p>“Andrew, this is not a fucking joke. This is so fucking important that I'm actually speechless,” Kevin spat back, dropping down onto the coffee table right in front of him to glare as he reached the center. His knee jumped incessantly.</p><p>“Not speechless enough.” Andrew stopped at the center fold, staring at the picture of him and Neil in New York. They could have been caught at any moment, any time while they were walking about. They hadn't been discreet, but the picture that was spread across the picture was one just as Andrew had pulled Neil in for a kiss.</p><p>The headline was innocuous and insufferable, the kind of headline that gets printed in gossip rags.</p><p>Andrew didn't take time to internalize it, though he did take the time to memorize the photo. He traced his eyes over the happy curve of Neil's mouth, the way he seemed to melt into Andrew, his hand on Andrew's neck.</p><p>He didn't take time to read the article either. He didn't care what they wrote about him or that their relationship had been outed, but he didn't know if he would matter to Neil.</p><p>Andrew still wasn't sure if he was more important to Neil than Exy, but he wouldn't ask him to choose either.</p><p>Neil shifted so he could blink blearily at the page. “That's a good picture,” he commented, settling to read through the paragraph of text, “Can I tear the picture out?” He was already ripping at the page before Kevin answered though.</p><p>“No! No it is not a good picture! It is a very bad picture!” Kevin shouted, jumping to his feet to pace, “I told you to be careful! Discreet! I told you that you should stay straight to the media! And then you decide to be fucking idiots! Do you know what this could mean for your Exy career? Either of you?”</p><p>Neil pulled the magazine from Andrew's loose grip and threw it at the coffee table. The magazine slid across the slick surface before dropping to the floor. Folding the picture up, he tucked it into his butt pocket. “Did you even read the article, Kevin? It's not the 1990's anymore. It's not even the early 2000's anymore. View on same-sex relationships in sports has completely changed in the last decade alone. One top of that, we're both good enough players for this not to matter.”</p><p>“You don't know that! You were the one who made the deal with Ichirou, but we all suffer if one of us fails! Do you understand that?” Kevin was ranting, and both Andrew and Neil tuned him out as he began to pace in favor of staring at each other.</p><p>“How do you feel about that? It wasn't a bad article, despite what it looks like. It was talking about queer athletes. It actually mentioned Jeremy Knox. Did you know he's Pan apparently?” Neil asked, crossing his arms on Andrew's chest and resting his chin on them.</p><p>“No. Don't care,” Andrew said without inflection, flicking to the next page of whatever he was reading on his phone, “How did you find out?”</p><p>“He mentioned that he knew we were together when he was giving a Jean-status-update. He was saying how nice it is that the queer community is slowly expanding in Exy.”</p><p>“Stupid.”</p><p>Kevin threw his hands into the air. “You're not even listening to me.” When they didn't answer, he stormed out looking for someone who would.</p><p>“I think it's nice,” Neil murmured, reaching up to idly card his fingers through Andrew's hair before running a finger down the bridge of his nose. He grinned when Andrew stopped and glared at him, but the glare had no heat behind it. Neil's smile was playful.</p><p>Andrew dropped his phone back on his chest. “What do you want, Neil?”</p><p>“Nothing, it's just nice to see the progress that's being made. I mean, I don't care what people write about me. If it had been a slander piece, it wouldn't have mattered. I'll be good enough when I graduate, none of it will mater, but I don't want that to be a problem for other athletes who don't have the talent at first.” Neil kept rambling, voice dropping more and more until it was barely intelligible. “I like touching you softly.”</p><p>“Go to sleep, Neil,” Andrew muttered, threading their fingers together, “You're talking nonsense.”</p><p>Neil didn't respond, already breathing deeply.</p><p>Andrew knew that was a huge step for Neil, just like letting Neil pleasure him had been an important step for him. He knew Neil was used to falling asleep wherever he could, but he also knew that sleep was never peaceful. Neil always stayed in a twilight sleep, just alert enough that he could react at a moment's notice. Andrew knew this was an important step because it meant that Neil was not only comfortable enough with him, but with the others in the house to let himself actually sleep.</p><p>He knew what Neil's easy, deep sleep meant about his trust in Andrew. Despite knowing that Neil trusted him, it still surprised him every time he realized that he trusted him, sending a warm thrill through his chest.</p><p>Looking over at the magazine though, he couldn't stop the shard of ice that slipped beneath his skin. That picture could have just meant an opportunist who knew their faces had taken their chance, but with the events of the last two weeks, he thought it meant that someone was following Neil. It meant they had a track on him, and that didn't sit well with him.</p><p>He needed to talk to Renee.</p><p>…..</p><p>Renee sat against the windscreen of his car, hands folded across her abdomen as she stared up at the stars with a pensive expression. She listened closely as he explained to her what had happened since the start of Summer. The others were waiting for the pizza and drinks they'd gotten, but they had stopped in the parking lot before walking back up.</p><p>He was laid out next to her, but he couldn't stop staring at her fingers tap, tap, tapping against her knuckled. “What is it?” he asked, taking a deep drag off his cigarette.</p><p>“I saw that picture.”</p><p>“I assumes. Kevin hasn't stopped ranting about it since it was published.”</p><p>She didn't respond. Her lips only pursed further.</p><p>“What?” he asked more emphatically this time.</p><p>Her lips remained pursed for one more long moment before she said, “I thought it seemed strange when the picture was taken and when it was published. That disparity seemed... deliberate. The angle of the picture, the look of it, how close it was... That wasn't really a normal paparazzi photo. You can clearly see it wasn't taken with a telephoto lens, you know?” Her pale eyes glanced towards him, narrowing. “I think we need to do a couple readings, but if I'm going to do anything more than that, I need more information.”</p><p>“What do you need?”</p><p>Renee turned her eyes back to the sky, eyes drifting and going soft. Her face returned to her natural, easy smile. “Well, first things first, I need a full moon. We've got some time, but not a lot. After that, if I'm going to do anything about it, I need a waning gibbous or a new moon.” She turned a smile to him. “This is going to be interesting.”</p><p>Andrew groaned, slumping against the car. “Last year was interesting enough.”</p><p>“Oh, come on,” Renee prodded with a grin, “You know things are never boring with Neil around.”</p><p>Andrew groaned again.</p><p>…..</p><p>Neil:</p><p>Neil perched on the edge of the couch, watching as the others chatted and drank and were loud. Coming together again, they'd easily fallen back into the rolls they'd carved out for themselves throughout the year. They'd have to reevaluate their standings when the new Kits joined them, but the upper hierarchy would likely remain the same.</p><p>The upper classmen, Nicky, Aaron and Kevin were interspersed throughout the room, drinking as much as they always had. They hadn't been planning on drinking as much as they were, but as Andrew and Renee had been gone for so long, the liquor had begun to flow more liberally.</p><p>With them still gone, those old insecurities crept back into Neil's mind from before, before he realized that Andrew was it for him, before he trusted Andrew, before Renee told him Andrew was gay. Just... before. From when he still through Renee had feelings for Andrew.</p><p>He knew that his insecurities were stupid. He and Andrew had just gone through this conversation in New York when Andrew had told Neil that he wasn't going to leave him. They were for certain. They were the end for each other, but that didn't stop the little whispering voice in the back of his head.</p><p>The voice sounded like his mother, his father, Lola, even the upper classmen, Nicky and Aaron. No one had faith that they would stay together. No one besides Renee and Kevin for different reason respectively.</p><p>Neil thought that's why he'd finally relented on the magazine picture. They'd talked about it later once he'd calmed down, and he'd admitted to Neil that it was probably better for them to come out while still in college than when their careers were underway. There would be less backlash that way, time for people to warm to the idea of them as a gay couple before they stepped into the professional Exy scene. On top of that, with Jeremy Knox open with his own sexuality, it would make for an easier transition.</p><p>Matt and Dan kept glancing at him, but didn't say anything as he just observed the group.</p><p>Nicky and Allison locked elbows, knocking back shots in unison before laughing and falling back against their seats. They gulped at their chasers before anyone decided to continue the conversation.</p><p>“So, how was the summer?” Dan asked conversationally, eyes skipping between Kevin, Nicky, Aaron and Allison with a smile. “It can't have been great if you're already drinking like fish.”</p><p>Nicky waved his hand around, grinning. “The trial was a cinch. I don't think it's going to last into the school year. So the summer wasn't so bad.”</p><p>“Well, that's good. Kevin, Aaron, Allison?”</p><p>“I got to practice, so it was fine,” Kevin muttered.</p><p>Unceremoniously, Allison stood and announced, “I met a tattoo artist. Summer flings for the win,” pulling up her shirt to display the huge expanse of flowers, birds, serpents and a singular fox that ran from her ribs down beneath the waistband of her skirt. “It goes further.” She dropped her shirt and listed her skirt hum to expose the rest on her thigh. “I was iffy about it when she suggested it, but I'm kind of in love with it.”</p><p>The others marveled over the artwork, leaning in to get a better look.</p><p>Neil couldn't keep his eyes off the scars that crisscrossed up her thigh that the ink had been sunk into, but hadn't been completely covered. “It's beautiful,” he said, mesmerized by the colors and wondering if someone could do that for the worst of his scars. If someone could hide them from even his own eyes. He doubted, but he dreamed all the same.</p><p>Allison beamed. “Thanks, hon. It was my design so I'm glad it came out so well.”</p><p>Dan looked to Aaron last where his head was still bowed over his glass, shoulders hunched in exhaustion. “Aaron?” she asked cautiously.</p><p>They were all surprised when he actually opened his mouth. “It was... exhausting. The trial is exhausting, and these idiots are exhausting, and...” He trailed off, not looking at any of them, but there was a smug smirk on Allison's lips that said she knew what else he had to say.</p><p>“And what?” Neil asked, spurred on by Allison's expression and by the events of the summer.</p><p>“Go on. Tell them. They'll find out one way or another. I just hope you told that psycho brother of yours first.”</p><p>Aaron looked around them, directing a scowl at Allison before sighing. “Kaetlynn's pregnant.”</p><p>The room erupted with questions and shouts.</p><p>White noise filled his years, but he was aware of Andrew's absence more than before. He was acutely aware of the fact that he was being followed. Of the fact that he was absolutely sure Aaron hadn't told Andrew first.</p><p>Into the screaming, Neil said breathlessly, “I'm being tracked, and we're not sure how close they are to finding me.”</p><p>The room fell silent.</p><p>“Oh, so the confession party got started without us,” Andrew said monotonously from the doorway, holding several plastic bags as he held the door open for Renee to carry in the pizza boxes. “Hope we didn't miss anything exciting.”</p><p>“You're just in time for the explanation,” Allison said though her narrowed eyes never left Neil, “Spill. Now.”</p><p>Neil did, a little shaky as the words tumbled out. At the end, when everyone was well and truly into their cups, Aaron pulled Andrew out. When the door opened again, it was just Aaron who returned looking far worse than before. Small cuts marred his cheeks and arms, but no one commented.</p><p>With a sigh, Neil stood and went after Andrew.</p><p>…..</p><p>“He told you.” Neil stepped out onto the roof, finding Andrew in the same spot as always. He walked towards him, cautious of those spikes that Andrew's magic was so fond of. Mist curled from him, wrapping around Andrew gently to hold him close.</p><p>Andrew offered Neil a cigarette when he reached his side.</p><p>Neil took the unlit cigarette, leaning in towards Andrew and meeting his eyes as the tips pressed together. He inhaled deeply until the end caught, but didn't move away from him. “Tell me what you're thinking.”</p><p>“He kept it from me,” Andrew whispered, his hazel eyes never straying from Neil's, “She's two months along. They found out last month. He said he was worried about how I'd retaliate.”</p><p>“Is he right to be worried?” Neil asked even though he knew Aaron didn't.</p><p>Andrew's eyes narrowed, flickering. “I don't hurt children even if I think it's selfish.”</p><p>“What is?”</p><p>“Bringing them into a world this cruel.”</p><p>“You know what I think?” Neil asked, lowering his cigarette and leaning in close to Andrew's ear.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Neil kissed his temple softly as he whispered, “I think that this world may be cruel, but you'd do anything to protect their baby no matter what. Even though you don't like Kaetlynn, and you and Aaron still don't get along yet. Like you said, you don't hurt children.”</p><p>Andrew turned his mouth to meet Neil's, breathing smoke passed his parted lips. They stayed up there long into the night wrapped up in the safety of Neil's mist, until the moon was high in the sky and their mouths were sore from kissing.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>